Neopets Warden Force
by nightelf37
Summary: A evil force led by a Fire Faerie is turning selected users into Neopets. One of them, with the help of his own Neopets, and a band of unlikely fighters where some aren't even known as such end up being more of a handful than they expected.
1. Chapter 1

It was an ordinary 'night' at Neopets (since my computer is at The Plilippines GMT+8) when I suddenly got a NeoMail from theneopetsteam.

"What did I do now?", I asked myself, knowing I haven't done any 'Neocrimes'.

When I opened the NeoMail, I saw that it was an invitation to a special Neopets Challenge exclusive to those whose Neopets have an obvious similarity. I realized that I got this because the TNT (theneopetsteam), saw that not only my Neopets were all Yellow, but also in a form capable of doing 'human stuff' like walking along floors, pushing buttons , pulling levers, that sort of practical thing for adventuring.

As I read further, I saw that the mail asked me to choose a Neopet to serve as an avatar. When I selected a Blue Kacheek and sent it to fyora (not the Faerie Queen, of course, but one of the moderators), which the message instructed me to do, I saw an energy streamer bypass my eyes. A moment later, I saw the streamers multiplying and, before I could get up and away, I realized that I was paralyzed.

Once I saw nothing but the energy streamers, they dissipated, and I realized now that I was in a magical bubble above Faerieland. Suddenly I felt something weird at my butt and when I looked, I almost fainted. It was a blue fox tail and when I looked closely at my 'reflection' in the bubble, it then hit me; I had transformed into the avatar I selected (Blue Kacheek).

Suddenly, the bubble burst and I was falling down. As I realized that I was headed for a Neohome, seomething caught me, slowing my fall, and when I looked, I saw that it was a Yellow Shoyru.

"Gotcha!", my saviour said. "You quite heavy for a Kackeek, though. I can't hold on for very long. Urrrrgh!"

Just then, a Yellow Acara came out of the home saying, "Let me catch him! Let me catch him!" as she got ready to stand upright and catch me.  
However, the 'rescue' was to have problems; the Shoyru stumbled, missed the Acara, landed in a heap, and released me in pain as I rolled and bumped my head on the Neohome's wall.

"Sorry I missed.", the Shoyru apologized.

"No. I am to blame.", the Acara countered.

"Just get him in.", a voice from inside said. "I have a bad feeling about this."

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"Hello?", a female voice called out to me.

"Huh?", I replied. "I don't know why… I've become… like this. And… I wish… to find out."

"Hello?", the voice repeated.

"Huh?"

I then opened my eyes to see a Yellow Usul call out, "Hello?"

When she saw I was awake, she yelled, "Hooray!" as he raised her arms in delight.

"Where… am I?"

"You're in our Neohome.", she informed me. "My friends said you fell from the sky. It scared me a bit."

"Who are the fellow Neopets that are with you?"

"Well, there is a Grundo, an Acara, and a Shoyru living with me, all Yellow. Weird, right?"

I then got up with a start and exclaimed, "Euryflavia?!"

"Why, yes! That's my name! I'll just call in my friends."

She then left me for a moment and as I looked, I saw that the Neohome was somewhat familiar to me. Just then, Euryflavia came in with her three friends.

"All right now.", the Yellow Acara said. "What is this ruckus about?"

"Hello, Aquanax.", I greeted her.

"Wha… How did you know her name?", The Yellow Grundo gasped in surprise.

"I know yours too, Messerole."

"Woah!", Euryflavia gasped. "Maybe this is nightelf_37 and that his transformation is linked to the recent events."

"I'm still doubful, however.", the Yellow Shoyru said as he rubbed his chin. "He may probably be a Neopet with his owner who has looked at his lookup for all we know."

"I understand. To prove that I am what I claim to be, I'll tell you a secret only a few know, Tychophon.", I challenged him.

"Yeah?", he said as he brought his hands on the bed and stared stright into my eyes. "What is it, then?"

"You were once blue and sometime after Messerole joined, you were painted Yellow. After that, Euryflavia became part of the 'team'."

As he was stupefied by the truth, he then hugged me and said, "nightelf_37! It is you!".

"Told you so. Please let go, You're choking me! And you can call me Rael."

"Sorry." After he let go, he asked, "What happened to you?"

"Well, I received a NeoMail from the Neopets Team-", I began to explain.

"The Neopets Team?!", Aquanax echoed in surprise.

"What about them?"

"I've heard that they have been doing weird things lately, like sending NeoMail like yours to users with pets like us. Not necessarily yellow."

"And another thing…", Messerole told me. "From the recent events that happened before your abrupt 'arrival', 5 certain Faeries have gone 'sick', and are unable to do their duties."

"Who?", I asked.

"Well, there's the Earth Faerie Illusen-", he began to say.

"I suspect Jhudora is behind this.", I muttered.

"She isn't because she's also in the list.", he countered.

"Is that so? Well, who else is sick?" I wanted to know more.

"According to the rumors, Air Faerie Psellia, Light Faerie Siyana, and the Water Faerie from the Rainbow Fountain."

"Really? We have to report to Queen Fyora about this!"

I then got up from bed, fully revitalized, strode past them, and went outside but then, a paw landed on my shoulder.

When I turned around, Aquanax said to me, "We're coming with you!"


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Report to the Queen

As the five of us traversed across the clouds of Faerieland, we bypassed a Neohome where we saw a Blue Skeith , a Red Korbat, two Yellow Jubjubs, a red Usul, a Blue Wocky, a Red Acara, a Pink Grundo, a Purple Grundo, 2 Blue Aishas, a Blue Xweetok, a Red Uni, a Blue Jetsam, a blue Flotsam, a blue Kacheek, and a blue Peophin gathered up and making a ruckus, judging by all the noises.

"Hey, nightelf_37? Should we check out the ruckus there?", Euryflavia suggested.

"Best we don't.", I gruffly replied as we moved on.

"Why?"

"Because I know who their owner is?"

"Really?"

"Yes. All those pets have belonged to my younger sister, who has four usernames; jiji_14, jiji14, jianne_14 and currently, jianne14. While the number of Neopets there are too many for four accounts, she has abandoned at least six of them, left seven behind in her older accounts and is taking very bad care of the remaining four."

"Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that."

"It's okay. She even puts her shop with items in outrageous prices, thinking they'd be sold. She even ignores my advice which works."

By then, we were at the gates of Faerie City. As the guards allowed us in, as they do for every visitor, we hastily made our way to Faerie Castle and entered the open doorway. In the hallway that followed, we looked at the pictures and statues of every Faerie and Neopet of that 'color' and reacted with awe.

Eventually, we reached a great door and when I peeked, it reminded me of the Hogwarts Dining Hall in the Harry Potter series. At the long tables Faeries of every element were eating, drinking, gossiping and chatting with one another . And directly opposite the door was the Faerie Queen herself, Fyora, who had her staff in one hand and a Faerie Bubble in the other.

The Battle Faerie, Aethia, was at the Queen's right side, ready to oppose any intruders. Just then, Queen Fyora suddenly said, "Please come in. I know you're at the door."

'Busted', the five of us crossed the door, closed it behind us, and approached the Queen cautiously. Despite all the faces staring at us, we eventually reached her. As seats magically appeared behind us, we sat down on them.

"Greetings, young ones.", the Queen said. "What brings you here this evening?"

"Your Majesty, you might turn us into something unnatural for this, but our friend here, the one who isn't yellow, is originally a human.", Euryflavia told her.

"Let me see.", the Queen said as she popped the bubble into her mouth and stared at me as if her words were the truth. A few seconds later, her eyes widened in surprise.

She then muttered, "I can't believe this is happening again."

"Again?", Tychophon asked.

"Well, you see.", the Queen said. "This thing has happened before; humans were transformed into Neopets and transported to Neopia. Tell me, did he get a Neomail?"

"Yes."

"Was it a 'harmless quiz' from someone named Atera?"

"Nope. It was an 'invitation' to a special Neopets Challenge sent by, however much you may deny it, theneopetsteam and it told him to send it to fyora, not you, You Majesty, but a 'moderator'. Why do you ask?"

"You see, Atera was the cause of the event I mentioned. It occured 9 years ago and was resolved by two brave humans named Al'Kuna and Luvinnemiousis, whose forms were an Electric Eyrie and Faerie Kougra respectively."

Just then, the door opened and Number Six came in, heavily bruised and weakened.

"Fire Faerie… coalition… of… small-time villains…", he said as he fainted. As the Healing Springs Faerie came over to cure him of his wounds, Aquanax muttered, "So… my suspicions were true…"

"Let's head out!", Tychophon said. "I bet there are tons of 'humans-turned-Neopets' outside!" He had read "Guardians Of Neopia: The Chain Quiz" in the Neopian Times before.

The five of us and the Queen crossed the door and the hallway, leading to the entrance, which had closed, due to the very late hour that has passed since our entry. But when we opened the door, the area was deserted. Though we were able to see a few Neopets who were fading away, they were gone in a blink.

Suddenly, a Fire Faerie descended from above and landed in front of us. "If you're looking for the victims of MY NeoMail, give up! They have been taken care of. I have learned from Atera's mistake nine years ago!"

"So YOU'RE the one who sent the NeoMails.", I said.

"I see that there is still one left. Oh well, time for you to disappear."

The Fire Faerie then generated a sword of fire, then created a 'blade wave' from it intended for me but my Neopets (who were in front) went in the way and took the damage.

"Guys!", I shouted as I saw them heavily bruised.

Just when the Fire Faerie could come and finish me off, Queen Fyora blocked the attack with her staff, which did not break or even get close to breaking.

"Meddling queen.", the Fire Faerie scoffed.

"You have to get through me first.", Fyora said to her.

"I can, at the very least, give you a hard time, if not beat you."

The Fire Faerie backed away swiftly, then blew a gust of wind, which the Queen 'divided' with her staff.

"That technique is Air Faerie-exclusive.", Fyora exclaimed in surprise. "How did you laern it?"

"If you've heard the rumors…", the Fire Faerie sneered as she generated an orb of light and one of darkness.

"I see.", the Queen realized. "You have snatched their abilities for yourself."

After the Fire Faerie tossed her spheres at the Faerie Queen, who twirled her staff in front of her, deflecting the attack, she said, "I am unstoppable against anyone with these powers. You had better stay out of my way."

When she disappeared, I passed out from the trauma.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Neopets Agency: Black Ops

When I awoke, I was lying down on a pink cloud floating inside a Neohome I've never seen before.

"You're awake?", a female voice said to me.

When I got up and turned around, I saw an anthropomorphic Purple Gelert wearing a maid's uniform.

"My name is Celandra. I've been given a request from the Queen to send you here in the Secret Base."

"Where are my Neopets?"

"Not to worry. I'll take you to them."

I got off the cloud and followed her across various hallways and she led me to the living room where, on the large round carpet, was a miniature wooden moai and around it were my four Neopets in energy spheres floating above the ground.

"How are they? How bad is it?", I asked the maid.

"They'll be fine. And they'll get some new powers once they wake up."

"Really?", I asked, curious about the powers. "What are they?"

"well, let's just say that they will be able to utilize what they have read."

"Oh, I see.", I said, relieved that it wasn't anything with a high price. "Who will be aiding me against the threat of the so-far unnamed Fire Faerie. Jeran? Judge Hog? Hannah? Garin? The Space Faerie? Who?"

To my disappointment, Celandra. "Sorry, but after Fyora went to each and every well-known hero so far, each were unavailable."

"What?! Every known hero is unable to help us? Whoever is left?"

"Well, Nightsteed was away during the siege, Niten Hiroru managed to arrive, Casandia will be arriving soon, and then there are the Black Ops."

"Black Ops?", I asked, since I never heard of it before.

"A secret squadron of elite operatives. Oh, wait! Here comes one of them now."

Just then, a white portal appeared and out came a White Aisha who seemed quite familiar and with her were Nightsteed and Niten Hiroru. When she opened her blue eyes (which were closed when she came in), I realized that this was Imiya from "Maths Nightmare".

As I looked in disbelief and said, "THIS is one of the agents?" A moment later, I was suddenly out of breath.

"Did you really have to do that? That was too much 'THIS is one of the agents?' for me to tolerate.", Celandra complained to the Aisha.

"Sorry.", Imiya apologized. "I just wanted to show him my powers over an individual's sense of time." I realized that she 'rewinded' me over and over.

Just then, Fyora appeared from behind Imiya in a flash of light and said, "I see you have met Imiya, one of our best operatives. If she hasn't told you already-"

"She has powers over one's sense of time.", I interrupted.

"Right. Other than that, she can also control a herd of Babaas that come out of nowhere and do her every command."

"U-huh."

"Along with the coalition of villain the Fire Faerie has gathered, there were also these creatures under her control.", Fyora explained. "Something we never saw before."

She then created a sphere and there, I saw what the 'black creature'

looked like.

"Heartless attacking Neopia?", I mouthed as I looked at the 'Shadow' move about.

"Now where was I?", the Queen said. "Oh, yeah. I remember. I came to release your Neopets from their recovery bubbles. Hiroru-san?"

The Kiko samurai hopped over and picked up the moai, instantly releasing my Neopets. As Celandra and Nightsteed left the living room, probably to make the room less crowded, Fyora approached each of them and gave them a pendant, then came to me and did the same.

My pendant was round and had a thunderbolt logo in it. I also inspected the logo's of my Neopets' pendants. Tychophon's had a pyramid logo, Aquanax's had a chibi picture of a faerie, Messerole's had spots, and Euryflavia's had a jelly.

"Those pendants are a 'prototype' the Black Ops have been working on.", Fyora explained to us. "You'll know what to chant to unlock its power when the time comes."

"Thank you, Your Majesty.", the five of us replied to her.

"Still, Rael, as your Neopets called you, I see that you need some equipment should your pendant fail."

She then teleported me to the Hidden Tower. As I stood around in awe, Fyora told me to select my weapons and she added, "This is my secret stash, where I keep at least two of every 'retired item' and some equipment unavailable for sale even in this tower."

As I looked around, I found what I was looking for; an Ylana's Blaster, and a (What?!) Lord Kass Battle Shield. When I returned to the Queen and requested for a color change on the shield , she agreed as she said that she had to recall who that Fire Faerie was.

After I changed the design of the shield into yellow with a white square in the middle and a black star in it, dubbing it the Neo Force Battle Shield.

"I finally identified who the Fire Faerie is; Eithne. She's probably trying to make a comeback."

Just then, Celandra appeared out of nowhere and said, "We're ready, my Queen."

"All right then.", Fyora answered. "First off, you will be sent to Neopia Central to locate the the source of the multiplying 'Heartless', as you call them. Aquanax and Imiya will come with you to meet two other agents. Are you ready to fight?"

"As if I have a choice?", I replied.

"Okay! Are you ready to go?"

I nodded reluctantly.

"Then good luck."

Fyora then teleported me to a rooftop, where Aquanax, Imiya, and two others were waiting.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: No Time For Usukis

"I see you have arrived.", Imiya greeted me. "Let me introduce to you our two agents."

As she directed me to the Green Usul, the said, "This is Sally, the first mascot for the 'Usuki Frenzy' game. What is not known about her is that she is a well-trained martial artist."

Imiya then directed me to the Cybunny next to Sally.

"This is Lucie, Sally's 'public replacement'. Like Sally, she knows martial arts quite well. Let's get moving now, shall we?"

The five of us then got down the stairs in the building, ignoring the civilians as we went, and got out the door to see superheroes all over th place like headless chickens; moving around in a frenzy, trying to eliminate the Heartless threat.

Imiya then said to me, "Sally, Lucie, and I will try and look for the source. You and Aquanax hold off the black creatures."

"Just call them Heartless, for the sake of giving them a name. Where are the others, anyway?"

"Elsewhere, doing the stuff we are doing right now."

"Okay. Good luck."

We then split up as my Acara and I went off to fight. As we travered the lamplit streets with the sun just rising, we encountered the Highland Chia with some Shadows alongside him at a crossroad.

Just as he ordered one of them to attack, before the Shadow could lunge, Aquanax fired a jet stream of water from her mouth which obliterated it (Acara Squirt).

The Highland Chia then pulled out his Forest Sling and shot a stone at Aquanax, but I came in front of her and blocked it. As he ordered his Shadows to attack, Aquanax leapfrogged over me and made a shockwave on the ground, eliminating the Heartless (ability from the Book of Earth Spells).

Just then, the Highland Chia tossed an Evil Muffin, then set it on fire with his Scorch ability. Luckily, my Acara was smart enough to hide behind me as I shielded us from that dangerous cupcake. Then I fired away at the Shadows that he called out to attack us. The Highland Chia then pulled out his Improved Earth Scepter and, bringing it down, sinking our lower halves into the ground.

As he approached us, he said, "What a shame. I thought you would serve as a challenge but no; you're merely weaklings."

He then pulled out his War Hammer, ready to pound us into the ground like Whac-A-Moles. Just before he could do that, he was 'stopped'. We took advantage of this and pushed ourselves out of the holes and saw Imiya behind the Highland Chia.

"I can't hold this for long!", Imiya told us. "He has an Aura that is trying to resist my power. Defeat him quickly!"

Aquanax then performed Acara Tsunami (the water materialized out of thin air), which consisted of water appearing from the Acara's back and then crashing down on the Highland Chia, making him faint after he was 'back in time'.

Imiya then pulled out some magic cuffs and put them on the Chia's hands, rendering him unable to act as he was teleported away.

"There! That should heep him from causing trouble for the time being.", Imiya said as she wiped some sweat from her forehead.

The then turned towards me and said, "I have observed your battle with the Highland Chia. I only came in because you position decame dire, if you were gonna ask why I did not come to your aid earlier. Let's move on."

As she walked down one of the roads, Aquanax and I followed. Some time later, we heard a roar and we headed for the source. When we arrived, we saw Balthazar doing battle with Lucie and Sally, who were losing. Imiya used her power to 'stop' Balthazar long enough to allow the Usuki girls to regroup with us.

Just then, Balthazar pulled out a Wand Of The Air Faerie and a Greater Orb Of The Fire Faerie. He then brought them down like swords, sending an energy wave that exploded in collision, sending the five of us backward.  
As we struggled to get up, Aquanax said, "Maybe it's about time we used the pendants the Queen gave us."

"We're thinking the same thing.", Sally said as she pulled out a smoke bomb. Lucie did the same.

"All right then.", I said as I stood up while the two Usuki girls set off their smoke bombs. "I call upon the spirit of Alkuna! Grant me the powers of lightning." As the pendant shone as I spoke those words, light surrounded me bottom up and when they dissipated, I was now an Electric Kacheek.

"I call upon the Faeries to grant me the power of flight!" Pink energy streamers surrounded Aquanax and when they faded away, she had Faerie wings and a mystical aura.

When the smoke cleared, Sally and Lucie were wearing pink ninja suits and held either a nunchaku(Lucie) or a bo(Sally).

"You think that's gonna scare me?", Balthazar mocked as he saw our new 'outfits'. "Well you got another think comin'! Heartless!"

Just as Shadows appeared around him, Imiya replied, "How about we even the odds? Babaas!"

As black Babaas (the big ones in Maths Nightmare with the 'hard' equations) appeared on our side, the Shadows charged as the sheep Petpets went for them. Almost simultaneously, we and Balthazar jumped up high and landed on a rooftop to our left.

"All right! Let's end this!", Balthazar said as he pulled out his two wands and prepared to fight. But just before he could even swing them to cast a spell, two shurikens whizzed in the air and knocked them away from his paws.

Enraged, Balthazar got ready to attack with his claws and fangs and charged. Acting fast, Imiya distracted him with a taunt as Sally got ready to trip him up with her bo. It worked as Lucie came over and whacked the giant Lupe over and over with her nunchacku.

Despite the damage, Balthazar got up in a rage, sending Lucie towards Sally, knocking them down, and shoved Imiya away before she could 'stop' him.

Just before he could go for me next, Aquanax grabbed me by the waist and flew out of harm's way. She then followed with a spell to create an updraft, sending us higher up (from the Mage Spells book). Balthazar responded by using his Supersize Gargantuplex to make himself much bigger. Suddenly, we were transported to a strange arena that had nothing but white all over.

"I activated a battle matrix to keep Neopia Central out of harm.", Aquanax answered to my eventual question (from the Ancient Arcana).

"You can't stop me, puny pets!", Balthazar roared as he swiped a paw at us but we dodged it(or to be exact, Aquanax did since she was holding me).

"Why are you doing this?!", I found myself telling him.

"I'm a bounty hunter, of course! I'm being paid well for this!" He swiped again and missed.

"But aren't your missions linked to fugitives, the standard bounty hunter target, and capturing Faeries?" Another swipe. Another miss.

"What do you care?!" He jumped to bite us but we flipped and landed on his snout. As I 'ran' all the way over his head, Aquanax supporting me, we slid down his back, attacking all the way, but Balthazar pointed his tail upwards, sending the two of us into the air.

As we landed safely, I replied, "You're making a bounty with a Faerie! You hate them, right? After you asked for help from them when you were a pup and they tossed stuff at you in return?"

"HOW DID YOU KNOW THAT?!!!!", Balthazar roared as he turned around.

"Everyone knows that!", I found myself shouting back at him. "Now it's time for you to be detained! Aquanax!"

She then created a sphere of water (from The Big Book of Faerie Spells), and tossed it at Balthazar, imprisoning and drowning him, I dismissed my weapons, took a stance and started to twist and twirl my fingers around, electricity gathering at my fingertips. I then tucked my elbows in, put my fingers together, aimed at Balthazar, then shot out a huge bolt of lightning at him, zapping the ball of water and the bounty hunter in it.

Strained from keeping the sphere up, Aquanax let the water flow down, and flew up with me, since the water was still conducted with electricity from my last attack.

Just then, Balthazar shrunk, the 'battle matrix' dissipated, and there were Imiya, Lucie, and Sally on the street.

"That was a real awesome battle with the Balthazar back there!", Sally exclaimed.

"You were able to see us in the matrix?", I said.

"Well, duh.", said Lucie. "It was in a sphere large enough to be a monument."

"Really?", asked Aquanax. "I had no idea!"

"Now you do.", answered Imiya after cuffing Balthazar, 'sending' him away.

"What should we do now?", I asked.

Just then, we returned to normal (Sans myself, since I returned to being a Blue Kacheek), and a hologram of Celandra appeared from my pendant and said, "Rael, I'll be sending you to your next destination."

"Well, bye for now everyone." I was then teleported to Shenkuu. The entrance of the Emperor's palace, to be exact. And beside me were Tychophon and an Orange Kougra in Top Chop uniform.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Save the Emperor

"Greetings.", the Kougra said to me. "I am Katsuo, a trainee in the arts of karate."

We were standing outside the entrance of the Emperor's palace. Me, him, and my Shoyru.

"His speciality however, is the karate chop.", Tychophon told me.

"What are we doing outside the Emperor's palace?", I asked the two.

"Waiting for you after dispatching the 'large black ants' that were guarding the doors, who probably knocked out the original guards."

"Call them Shadows, okay?"

"Sure.", replied Katsuo. "Whatever you say. Now let's get inside."

As the three of us entered the palace, we traversed the halls, hoping to find someone to rescue, anyone at all. Just then, we heard commands from a female voice and when we followed the source, we saw shadows of a Cybunny, a Kazeriu, and Shadows (Heartless) behind a paper screen door (the ones in traditional Oriental residences).

When we opened it, there was Princess Lunara commanding her Kazeriu to attack the Shadows, while she herself dodged them while she was at it.

"There you are, Princess Lunara.", said Katsuo with relief. "Now I understand why you weren't able to report when you were called."

"Now you know, can you help me out?", Lunara asked. "Little Nageeta here, my Kazeriu, can't hold out much longer."

As she dodged another attack, Katsuo jumped in and started 'karate chopping' the Shadows. Tychophon and I snapped out of our disbelief that she was an agent and got ready to help too, but the job was done already.

"Thanks for showing up anyway.", Lunara said. "I need to go find my father now."

"What about your younger sister?", Katsuo asked.

"She'll be fine. I know it."

Just then, we heard stomping across the foor and when we all looked in its direction, it was Kasuki Lu.

"I will squash you!", the sumo Chia said.

"Not if we can help it!", Katsuo countered. "Princess Lunara, go find the Emperor with the others. I'll hold him off."

"I'm sticking with you.", Tychophon said to Katsuo. "No way you could handle him alone."

"All right then."

As I went off with Pricess Lunara, Kasuki Lu shouted, "Give up! You will never win HIIIIII YAAAAAA!!!" As the Chia went forward with a Trident of Poseidon, but his opponents strafed and Katsuo disarmed him with a karate chop.

Kasuki responded with a tackle on Katsuo, rendering the Top Chopper disabled. Since Tychophon was on the other side of the sumo Chia, he was able to get back at him for Katsuo with a Kick, following with a Dive.

As Katsuo got up from Kasuki's attack, said sumo Chia pulled out an Ice Scimitar, bringing it down on Tychophon, but he countered it with his Obsidian Dagger. Despite this, Kasuki was winning and would have if Katsuo did not bonk him on the head with his fist.

While the sumo Chia was distracted by the blow, Tychophon did a Fire Stare at him, knocking him unconscious. He and Katsuo then regrouped, ready for what's next. Just then, a Red Clockwork Grundo appeared and ticked its way towards them. A second later, there was an explosion.

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As Lunara and I ran the palace halls, looking for the Emperor, all of a sudden, at an intersection, a grappling hook whizzed past my face from my right, destroying a Shadow at the left. As the hook retracted, Lunara cried out, "Little sister!"

When I looked, I saw that it was the other Princess (a Green Gnorbu), who was taller than Lunara.

"How is she your 'little sister', Princess Lunara?", I asked her.

"Despite being taller than I, she is younger."

After pondering for some time on it, I replied, "I see. What's her name anyway?"

"Soraya. Princess Soraya.", the Green Gnorbu said as she approached me and her 'older sister'.

All of a sudden, a paper screen door was torn through and there appeared the Tax Beast. He began by whipping out his Black Frost Cannon and aiming at the three of us (or should I say four, if you count Lunara's Petpet).

When he fired it, I stood in front with my shield, blocking the cannonball, but I got frozen because of it. As a response, Soraya fired her grappling hook at the Tax Beast and Lunara ordered Nageeta to glide across the rope for a surprise attack.

While the Tax Beast successfully deflected the hook, he did not anticipate Nageeta as she bit him on the nose. As he struggled to get her off, I was thawed and I fired at the Tax Beast's feet again and again, forcing him to 'dance'.

While he did that, Nageeta let go and did a fire breath at him, causing him to run towards our direction as the Kazeriu. Just before he could bypass us, Soraya pulled out a pair of magic cuffs and locked them on the Tax Beast, making him vanish.

"Let's continue our search.", Lunara said as she, her Kazeriu, her sister, and I continued.

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Tychophon and Katsuo had been seriously injured from the Red Clockwork Grundo and ended up at a far off wall. Luckily, my Shoyru was able to remedy his and Katsuo's injuries in a jiffy (from the Qasalan Healing Techniques scroll). As the two got up, Kasuki lu approached them, revitalized from his Life Giver.

A he entered his battle stance, Kasuki Lu pulled out his sais and charged. Since he was so focused on Tychophon, Katsuo took advantage of this by tripping him up, forcing the sumo Chia to let go of his weapons, which flew to the wall and stuck there.

Then, Kasuki rolled forward, pulling out his sword and suddenly was about to impale Tychophon in the belly had he not gripped it just in time.

He chanted, "I call upon the spirit of Coltzan. Grant me the powers over sand!"

Sand then appeared out of nowhere and surrounded him. When the sand vanished, he was wearing a pharaoh's headress, a checkered blue and brown necklace, and was more yellow than ever. He also wielded a pharaoh's staff.

Returning to reality, he dissolved into sand grains, relieving himself of Kasuki Lu's sword, which sailed towards Katsuo, and reformed into him again.

"Now THAT was scary!", my Shoyru said to Kasuki Lu. He then breathed fire (Shoyru Inferno) at the sumo Chia, scorching him. Unable to act, he surrendered and Katsuo cuffed him (Every Black Ops Agent had a pair or two).

"Let's go see the Emperor.", Katsuo said as he and Tychophon set off, still in his Desert form.

After 5 wrong turns, they bott reached the Door to the Emperor's chamber. The Princesses and I reached there about the same time.

The five of us then entered the door and there was the Emperor--gagged on the floor, with the MSPP sitting on it in his place.

"Visitors!", MSPP said. "How nice!"

He stomped his paw on the throne and black lion that is totally black and ghostly appeared in front of us, blocking our way.

"Uh oh.", I gasped.

"Meet my new pet, the Phantom Lion. And perpare to die!"

And in a jiffy, the Phantom Lion got ready to charge at the six of us. Before it could do so, Soraya launched her hook at it, and Lunara ordered Nageeta to attack, meaning to catch it off guard, but the Phantom Lion evaded the hook, bit on the chain, and pulled the Princess around and around, ignoring Nageeta's futile bites.

After it let her go, sending her to one of the rafters above, knocking her out, the Phantom Lion proceeded to strike Nageeta, but was stopped by a lightning strike from Tychophon, who then followed with another lightning strike, but it was countered with a Grand Lightning Beam, stunning my Shoyru greatly.

The Phantom Lion opened its mouth and I saw that a sphere appeared there and was getting larger. I then realized it was charging up a beam attack and it was pointed towards Tychophon. In an act of desperation, I got in the way, shield up, and when the beam fired, my shield took the hit and got a scratch.

Knowing this may, sooner or later, lead to the shield's destruction, I blasted at the Phantom Lion's mouth, disrupting the attack, and then stwitched into Electric form, ready to do an lightning strike. But as I charged, I saw that the Phantom Lion had a Dual Battle Mirror, knowing that it would get reflected, I cancelled my attack, and charged myself up with the lightning.

As I taunted the Phantom Lion, hoping that I might be able to electrocute him with the lightning aura around me, Katsuo, with Soraya in his arms, appeared from above and stomped on the Phantom Lion, knocking it down. Then he ran towards Lunara and Nageeta, who were watching.

I took the chance to channel the lightning back at my fingertips and strike at the Phantom Lion, which faded away as a heart rose into the air and vanished.

"I I can't believe this!", MSPP stammered as he attempted to sneak away, but Nageeta noticed and bit him in place. Lunara then approached MSPP, cuffed him, and he was gone.

"That was anticlimatic.", I muttered. Just then, my pendant shook violently and a hologram of Euryflavia calling out, "Mayday! Mayday! We require assistance!"

Then, I began to shine brightly, signifying that I was about to teleport. I sighed. "Oh well. Goodbye for now." In a flash, I was gone. 


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Risk and Injustice

Once I was able to act again, I realized that I was at the front gate of Meridell Castle with Euryflavia, a Red Wocky with a spiked helmet reminiscent of Vikings, and a Blue Draik who held a red sword which looked all too familiar.

"Ah!", Euryflavia gasped as she created a wall of earth in front of us. "About time you arrived. Let me introduce you my comrades for this mission. The blue Draik is Valrigard, recently bailed out by Black Ops, and the red Wocky is Wallace, who is a proficient bomb-user."

Just then, a Shadow climbed up the wall, and was immune to every attack we did on it since it was under the ground, like a real shadow. Just when it popped out to strike Wallace from behind, Valrigard acted in time and thrust his sword on it, eliminating the Shadow.

"Yeeesh!", I said out loud. "No wall is too high for these Heartless." Just then, a protion of the 'wall' exploded and 2 floating mini-Black Mages in a 'robe' of red and a yellow hat accompanied with a Heartless in mediocre armor emerged from the resulting hole.

"Two Red Nocturnes and a Soldier.", I muttered to myself. "I can't believe the enemy has managed to summon them."

The Soldier then charged at us with a 'cyclone kick' and Wallace, who was closest, dodged it a la Matrix, landed on his forepaws, and brought his hindpaws at the Soldier's face, sending it flying. He continued backflipping as the Red Nocturnes blasted fire at him. Euryflavia stopped their assault by shooting a ball of ice from her slingshot, stunning them. Meanwhile, I fired away at the Soldier, who had turned its attention at me and was dodging every attack, though it was because my eyes were sore from the last two missions that I could not focus. Luckily, Valrigard came to my aid with a toss of a boomerang, stunning it for a while. I then bashed my shield at it, sending the Soldier towards the Draik knight, who destroyed it with his sword.

"Who summoned these anyway?", Valrigard asked. "They're starting to be a pain in the neck."

"I have no idea. Why did Black Ops bail you out in the first place?"

"Because I am a Black Ops Agent. What other reason could there be?"

"You may probably have an idea why these Heartless are attacking Neopia and that you were bailed out for answers.", I suggested. "Or perhaps, your are a legendary-"

"Dream on, kiddo. I kave as much knowledge of them as Wallace does; minimal."

Just then, Wallace and Euryflavia were done with the Red Nocturnes, and before any of us could get ready to fight again, the rest of the wall Euryflavia had set up exploded, sending us to the moat. When the dust settled, there stood the Flaming Meerca. Well, he was actually sitting on his tail.

"I see you have escaped at long last, Valrigard.", he said.

"You two know each other?", Euryflavia asked as she and the rest of us got up, drenched.

"Yeah. He was the one who framed me for his crimes, which I would not like to indulge.", Valrigard replied, trying to dry himself. "And despite his transformation, I can still recognize him."

"How?", asked Wallace, shaking off the water on him.

"His eyes. They were like that, even before he became the Flaming Meerca."

"I'm not here to have you recall our past!", said Meerca interrupted. "I'm here to eliminate all of you."

"Why?", I asked, finished wiping myself off with my tail, which felt weird.

"Why should I trouble you in your final hour?", he replied as he pulled out an Ice Scimitar and got down on his feet.

He then swung it sideways, sending a wave of explosive crystals at us but Valrigard countered them with a fire breath and Wallace pulled out two Cheap Fire Rings and stopped the crystals. Seeing his attack didn't work, the Flaming Meerca charged with his weapon but Valrigard stopped him with his own sword. Wallace then ran to the side and tossed a water balloon, but a Red Nocturne appeared in the way ,took the attack, and vanished.

Euryflavia came on the other side and summoned a serpent out of earth (from Ancient Arcana) to attack the enemy. I ran and mounted it, magic cuff in hand (which I obtained from Wallace) and ready to take him in. But the Flaming Meerca had other ideas; he kicked Valrigard away, jumped up on the serpent, kicked me off, resulting in a burn at the stomach, then ran across its back towards Euryflavia. She saw this and commanded the serpent to attack the Flaming Meerca, who kept running towards her. He jumped at the last second with the serpent slammed right into the Usul.

He thought he had taken care of everyone, but he was suddenly hit from below by a stone. When he looked, there was Wallace, aiming with his Wocky Slingshot. Before he can attack again, the Flaming Meerca tossed a Fire Flying Disc at him, but Wallace defended himself with his Fire Shield ability, which all Wockies possess. Wallace then pulled out a Sticky Hand, doused with water and slung it at the Meerca, snagging him, and sending him straight to wallace, who had cuffs ready. As the Meerca landed on the ground, the Wocky locked the cuffs onto him and he was gone in a flash.

Thankful that the ordeal was over, he dug up Euryflavia from the remains of the earth serpent she summoned earlier, while Valrigard tended to my burn. He then brought me towards Wallace and said, "We should get to safety first. No use in keeping a place safe if WE are the targets."

"I'll have to agree with you there.", replied the Wocky as he carried Euryflavia in his arms. I suggested that we head towards Meri Acres Farm, where we would endanger less people, but Valrigard countered that we would probably endanger their lifestyle (their crops). When Wallace suggested we head for Brightvale, since the road between there and Meridell is empty due to the attacks, we all agreed.

-------------------------------------

As the four of us walked up the path (Euryflavia was now awake and well and has remedied my eyesight), I spoke with Euryflavia, "So, that pendant has a jelly symbol on it. Wonder what jelly can do to assist you?"

"What do you mean?", she asked, trying to understand what I was trying to convey.

"Well, my pendant grants me powers over lightning, Aquanax is granted the power of flight, and Tychophon can turn himself into animated sand grains."

"Oh. Well, I have no idea.", she replied as she shrugged her shoulders.

"OKay." I then turned my attention to Wallace and called his attention.

"Wallace, why are we going to Brightvale?"

"To see how things are there. And also, I want to pay a visit to ROberta."

"Wait a sec.", Valrigard said. "Isn't she tending to Tormund, who got sick with Hoochie Coochies?"

"Oops. Silly me."

Suddenly, the Draik knight turned around and 'slashed' a fireball from behind into half. When the rest of us turned to look, we saw the Lava Ghoul who was accompanied by two Red Nocturnes and another one like them but had a green 'body' instead of a red one.

"BUt at least we led the enemy away from innocent Neopets.", Wallace said to Valrigard.

"They got a Green Requiem as well?!", I gasped.

"There you are.", said the Lava Ghoul. "I request you surrender the Blue Kacheek to me to minimize trouble."

I was behind wallace at that time, so I transformed into Electric form. Then I asked mockingly, showing myself, "What blue Kacheek?"

"You!", he replied, pointing at me.

"I'm not Blue.", I explained. "I'm Electric."

"Whatever.", the Ghoul said as he rolled his eyes. "Either come with me or suffer the consequences."

"If coming with you is going to result in my capture for Eithne, then I choose the latter.", I said as I called out my weapons. Valrigard readied his sword, Wallace pulled out two Mud Mixture bottles.

"You poor simple fools. You think you can defeat me? Me, the master of all fire!"

I sweatdropped at this and muttered, "I swear I have heard something like this before."

Just then, the two Red Nocturnes 'fused' with the Lava Ghoul and vanished in a bright light. When that faded, what stood in place of the three was a giant version of the Lava Ghoul with a giant 'Musical Wizard' hat (I will classify those like the Red Nocturne and Green Requiem as such), and a big, 'body' of a Red Nocturne. Also, it had the Heartless emblem on its hat.

"Now, Fell the wrath of the Lava Spectre!", said the resulting monster who then started to charge up a fireball in its mouth. Even when Wallace tossed his bottles at it, the Heartless was unaffected and he launched the fireball, resulting in an explosion, severely hurting us. BUt when the smoke cleared, there stood Euryflavia, her pendant shining.

"By the Four Bells Of Gelatina! Grant me the powers of regeneration!"

Starting with the feet, she slowly transformed all the way into a Jelly Usul. When the Lava Spectre shot a sharp wave of fire, supposedly cutting her arm, she regenerated a new one. She then pulled out her Yellow Frost Cannon and started firing away, damaging the Spectre and distracting it as Valrigard and Wallace retreated to recover.

Meanwhile, despite my injuries, I sneaked under the Heartless to attack the Green Requiem who was healing the Spectre. But before I could land a shot, the little Heartless tackled me, making me lose my focus, and worse was that the giant Heartless noticed me and turned around.

"That was a very, very foolish move you made there.", the Lava Spectre said as he wiggled his finger and ignoring Euryflavia's attack. "Now it's time to come with me." Just before he could strike, a purple bullet stunned him from above, then a surge of darkness struck him from behind (It was Euryflavia's Golden Geraptiku Talisman). When I looked up, I saw a creature with the torso and arms of a monkey, an abdomen and tail of a cat, and a head and tounge of a snake falling down to me. As he landed, he tagged me, and we disappeared in a poofy cloud and reappeared next to Euryflavia.

_Have the Blue Kackeek ride you, then zip around the Heartless while I blast him in all directions._, the 'hybrid' thought-spoke to Euryflavia. _Name's Carl._

She did what she was told ("What are you doing?", I asked), and once we were circling the Lava Spectre, Carl started teleporting around and firing at the Heartless.

_Attack too!_, Carl 'told' me.

I followed and in seconds, The Lava Spectre exploded, leaving the Lava Ghoul lying on the ground. The two Black Ops Agents, now recovered, then arrived, ran towards him, and cuffed him, sending him away. Euryflavia subsequently returned to normal.

_That was very helpful of you two._, 'said' Carl as he mock clapped. _Abandoning your allies in their time of need._

"Well, sorry.", apologized Wallace. "That attack from the Fire Spectre was SO severe that we had to flee. Rael was just foolish enought to attempt a back attack."

_Rael?_

"The blue Kacheek over there.", Valrigard explained.

Oh. Carl then turned to me and 'said', _I have come to assist you in your quest._

"Why?"

_Because this is not the only world being assaulted by the Heartless. I was sent here to make sure this doesn't fade into darkness._

"Who sent you?"

_My master whom I address as Mrfipp._

"Oh."

Just then, a rocket descended from above and landed next to Carl.

_Come on., _he 'said'._ Let's get a move on._

As he got in, Euryflavia said to me, "I'm sorry my powers did not do well."

"Don't worry.", I said placing my hand on her shoulder. "Maybe now wasn't the time for its powers to be truly realized."

"Take care.", she said as she waved farewell.

"I will", I answered as I entered the rocket. The door then closed and we took off.

-Here ya go, Mrfipp. And sorry for the lame battle scene, but let's say we were still amateurs in fighting.-


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7: Lasers Blast in Space

It took ten minutes before I could get out of the ship, coughing after it crash landed close to a meteor on Kreludor. As I came out coughing, surprised that I could still breathe, I picked up a stick from the ground (However did it get there?) and tapped the meteor with it. A second later, it vanished to thin air and behind it (not in it, since the meteor would've cracked) were a Blue Zafara in space pilot uniform, a Blue Alien Aisha in a space suit complete with helmet, a Blue Grundo in a uniform I can't think of which it is from, and Messerole.

"Hey there, Rael.", greeted my Grundo. "Who's this new acquaintance of yours?"

"His name's Carl.", I replied. "Who are YOUR new acquaintances?"

"The Zafara is an Ace pilot seen in the game Advert Attack. The Aisha here is Beerlap the III. And the other Grundo is Zygorax, who combated the Evil Fuzzels from the stars."

"Okay. So what's up?"

"From my scouting missions, I saw Heartless heading for the city, and will pass the Kreludan Mines on the way.", reported Ace Zafara.

"Do you think we can convince the S750 Kreludan Defender Robot there to help us?", I asked.

"If it thinks the Heartless are headed for the mines, it would defend it valiantly."

_Robots have valor?_, asked Carl.

"Never mind that. Anyway, you, Messerole, and Beerlap are supposed to go ahead and secure the mines. Zygorax and I will just get our vehicles."

You got it!, said Carl as he suddenly went off. A second later, he went back and asked, _Where are the mines?_

-------------------------------------

As the three of us traversed towards the mines, we were deciding on what to do next. Our current location was within an area filled with rock formations which, mostly, did not resemble anything in particular.

Suddenly, I stopped, and said, "Wait a second? Why didn't we just teleport to the mines?"

_My powers have limits, you know._, replied Carl. _I wasted most of my 'uses' on helping out Euryflavia and you back at Meridell._

"Sorry for all the trouble I gave you.", I apologized, lowering my head.

_It's okay._, replied Carl. _Besides, I can use the exercise._

Just then, a Mutant Chia appeared from behind one of the rocks and we saw, after a second, that it was THE Mutant Chia, a.k.a. Florg.

"Why hello there.", he greeted. "Time for you to come with me."

As he pointed a finger at me, I talked back, "As if! You can persuade all you want, but I won't change my mind."

"Okay then. I'll just have to take you in by force!"

Florg then crossed his arms upwards, then brought them down, creating two RIngs of Fire around him. As we braced for the attack, Florg charged with a Feather Tickler. On Carl's signal, Messerole tossed two Wet Snowballs, which doused the rings. However, he was left open to the Feather Tickler and took the blow, rendering him unconscious due to the resulting laughter. Since Messerole was surrounded by me, Carl, and Beerlap, when Florg attacked, the three of us fired our guns at him, but he answered with a Supersize!, knocking all of us back.  
However, I saw for a split second that Carl was able to backflip and land on his feet. As I turned my head to see the fight, the chimera (as he calls himself) charged at Florg and fired away. However, Florg answered with a snot from his nose (gross!) which struck Carl head-on, knocking him out due to the impact and keeping him in place due to being sticky.

Then, from behind Florg, Beerlap was blasting away at his back. The Mutant Chia turned around, wincing from the pain, and fired an Ultra Bubble Beam from his mouth. Even as the Aisha blasted each of the bubbles, they were filled with snot, which eventually immobilized him. Afterward, Florg turned to face me and approached. As I struggled to get up, I saw, peripherally from my left, Messerole inside an energy sphere, standing up, and amulet shining.

"By The Black Perphats Of Kutsua! Grant me the power of portals!"

He was swallowed up by darkness and a second later, the only change he had were large black spots all over his body. Suddenly, a small dark wormhole opened in front of me. When I shot at it, wondering where it leads, the shot came OUT of one of Messerole's spots, headed for Giant Florg. As it hit, Florg turned around and fired a stream of flames. Instead of dodging, Messerole put his hands together, then separated them, creating a dark wormhole in front of him, where the flames entered. Another wormhole opened behind Florg's behind and scorched him there. Then, he himself jumped into the wormhole, emerged from behind the Chia, then did a series of martial arts moves (from the book Kiko - Fu) that rendered the Chia unable to act while he was at it. Then, as Florg was beginning to shrink, Messerole summoned four wormholes around Florg, then laser blasts emerged from them. As my Grundo moved the portals, the blasts did do accordingly. Then, when the blasts stopped, I saw that Florg had fallen over and was holding up a white flag.

"Take me in!", he said. "I can't handle this job any longer!"

Beerlap III, who was finally out of the snot trap, then came over and cuffed Florg, sending him away. Messerole powered down, saying, "That was dangerous. I felt like succumbing to the darkness."

That was fantastic!, exclaimed Carl. I could only teleport myself. But you—are capable of teleporting more than that.

"Why would Queen Fyora offer a talisman that is so risky?", I wondered to myself.

"Who cares?", said Messerole proudly.

"Egad! It's happening already!", I gasped. "You're being addicted!"

"Sorry.", replied Messerole , sulking.

"You better be."

-------------------------------------

Finally, we were at the mines, where the S750 Kreludan Defender Robot stood. Also, we saw a giant humanoid robot (other than the Kreludan Defender), and a small spaceship meant for one pilot with Ace Zafara outside it. Also, I saw a Purple Gnorbu, a Blue, Orange, and Pink Grundo, a Green Lutari, a Red Ruki, and a Spotted Ogrin, all anthropomorphic and wearing a common uniform I could not quite place my finger into. Also, there were a lot of jelly Chias in space-generation armor.

"Who are those?", I asked Beerlap as we walked down.

"Agents, like us. But not Black Ops."

"Then what agents are they of?"

"We both belong to the Neopets Agency and while we are in the Black Ops branch, they are the standard variety."

"Oh. I see."

"By the way.", he whispered to my ear. "Their side careers are Yooyuball players."

"Really?"

"Yes. The Purple Gnorbu there is Derlyn Fonnet, leader of Squad Kreludor."

"We got one minute left.", said leader told everyone. "We got a minute before the attack begins. Everybody to positions!"

_But we don't even have positions yet!_, Carl complained.

Just then, the green Lutari (female) grabbed him me by the hand and said, "You do now! You're positioned with me, Zygorax, and Jurin T."

-------------------------------------

I was now on the right shoulder of Zygorax's mecha (called the X-Scrub 4000 Walker Bot, which he used to combat the evil Fuzzles) with my gun and shield ready. Vignacio, the Lutari was on the other, hands apart, as if she was about to blast energy from her hands. The red Ruki, Jurin T., and Carl were on top of the head, twin laser guns on the double. Zygorax himself was inside, piloting the Walker Bot.

We were just outside the mines, with the Chia soldiers (for lack of a better term) behind the rocks that were BEHIND us. Then, on the horizon, Air Soldiers, Large Bodies, Yellow Operas, Blue Rhapsodies, Soldiers, and Evil Fuzzles (non-Heartless), were headed our way. 5 seconds later all of them charged and we prepared for battle. As all the soldiers fired cannonballs of energy, obliterating the Heartless in the way, the Large Bodies rebounded any attacks it ran received, making the energy balls fall back on the Chias. When the going got tough, two teams bypassed us as we attacked the oncoming Heartless. These were Derlyn, Coco (Spotted Ogrin, male), and Messerole (in Spotted Form); and the other group were three Grundos: Zenor (blue), Qyldae (orange), and Xila (pink, female). As they bypassed us, the Heartless and Fuzzles overran us.

As Zygorax walked his mecha forward, trampling whatever was in its way, Jurin, Carl, and I did everything we could to prevent any of them from climbing the mecha. Meanwhile, Vignacio was blasting 'spells' at the flying Heartless, which made them drop to the ground in an instant. Overhead, I saw Ace Zafara bombing the Heartless, doing all sorts of tricks to avoid the counterattacks. Also, on the spacecraft was Beerlap III, who was dropping more bombs from the open cockpit.

-------------------------------------

(A/N: The good grunts should also be featured since they are fighting on our side.)

One of the Chia soldiers was bounded into the air by an Air Soldier and landed on the ground unhurt, thanks to its jelly body.

Another twirled its tonfas, knocking out the Blue Rhapsodies around it.

A third had found a way around the Large Bodies by jumping over it and shooting at its back with its semi-machine-gun.

A fourth Chia soldier was thrown off by a Soldier Heartless towards some Evil Fuzzles and was eaten up.

A fifth one had jumped from a rock and grabbed an Air Soldier on the feet, flying wildly and bumping into a cluster of Yellow Operas, causing a chain reaction of lightning bolts, striking friend and foe alike.

Yet another managed to avoid being crushed by a Large Body and, in return, fired like crazy into its side.

Basically speaking, our side has the upper hand.

-------------------------------------

Derlyn had jumped underneath a wall of Blue Rhapsodies and fired her machinegun-laser at them. By the time they turned around, they were all gone. Her teammate, Coco was doing quite well against the Soldiers that surrounded him. He was using his energy bracers offensively, despite being meant to be defensive . From behind, Messerole was warping the attacks of the Blue Rhapsodies towards the Yellow Operas and vice-versa.

Just then, a familiar Baby Bruce appeared, saying, "Hello there, Grundo. I know that you have a relation to someone I seek."

"Boochi!", gasped Messerole. "I do know who you're talking about. But I won't do such a thing!"

"I'm afraid you don't have much choice in the matter.", he said as he quick-drew his (Pacifier) ray gun and fired. Thankfully, Messerole opened a wormhole and it reappeared behind Boochi, injuring him since he's already a baby.

"Why you little…", started Boochi.

"Excuse me?", interrupted Messerole. "YOU'RE the one who's little."

Boochi then foolishly charged at the Grundo but he was warped by a wormhole. (Messerole did not have any magic cuffs to take him in.)

-------------------------------------

The other three Grundos were faring quite well. As Xila held up her energy shield, and Qyldae was twirling his doublesaber skillfully (even if he would accidentally injure himself, all he would've gotten would be bruises). Between them, Zenor fired his rifle with perfect accuracy. The three have been pushed back towards the S750 Kreludan Defender Robot. Thankfully, it was concentrating on firing at the Heartless, particularly at the Large Bodies, which its shots were able to penetrate. Suddenly, from a wormhole, which Messerole did not intend to have it lead to, Boochi appeared and 'pacified' the three of the Grundos. Dodging the attacks of the Kreludan Defender, he proceeded to attacking the Chia soldiers.

-------------------------------------

_Uh-oh!_, Carl thought-spoke out loud, making me, Jurin, and Vignacio turn to him.

"What's the problem, Carl?", asked the Lutari.

_A small, pink, penguin had penetrated our lines and is decapacitating our forces._

"Boochi!", I confirmed. I then used a radio Jurin gave and said to Zygorax. "Let's return to the mines. Boochi's there."

"On the double.", he answered as he turned his robot around and boosted to the mines with turbo jets on its back and 'heels'.

-------------------------------------

Back at the mines, all the Chia soldiers were now babies, but the Heartless Army had been decimated by then. Also, he had managed to take down the Kreludan Defender when he saw Derlyn, Coco, and Messerole headed his way. Naturally, he fired his ray gun, which turned them all except Messerole into babies. Said Grundo had managed to open a wormhole to block the ray headed for him, but he was too late to 'rescue' the others.

"Thanks for bringing me here.", said Boochi mockingly. "You just caused your downfall."

"Say that once we are all down!", countered Messerole as he opened a wormhole in front of him. From that emerged a torrent of water which slammed at the Baby Bruce.

"Yuck!", said Boochi, shaking off and spitting out water that he had almost swallowed. "Salt water! You shall pay for that!"

But before he could aim again, Messerole opened up a portal above Boochi, which dropped a bunch of dubloons on him, disorientating his focus.

"That enough?", asked Messerole mockingly. "Or you want some more?"

Just then, Carl poofed behind Boochi and aimed both of his guns at him. This proved to be a mistake, however, as Boochi had his gun pointed backwards. He fired a lucky shot and Carl was shrunken down to half Boochi's height.

_I hate you_, said Carl.

"I can live with that.", replied Boochi as he kicked away the chimera. Then, from another direction, the Walker Bot arrived and fired a flurry of missiles at the Baby Bruce. As he nimbly jumped on and off the missiles, he was suddenly struck by a blue lightning bolt at the face, which was from me. As I, in Electric Form, aimed again at Boochi, I proceeded with another bolt, but the Baby Bruce countered with a squirt from his baby bottle(?), which turned solid from the electricity and landed on the ground. He then followed up with an Ultra Bubble Beam, but I burst them all with another bolt, then decided to 'mix' my electric powers with my blaster. When that was done, Boochi was suddenly at my face with his rattle (which was spiked!).

"Yikes!", I gasped as I brought up my shield. But as his rattle landed on my shield, he flipped over me, landed behind, then aimed his gun at me just as I turned around to aim my gun at him. We were at a standoff.

"Any last words?", asked Boochi.

As he spoke, I saw a wormhole appear above him. Then a weight fell down on Boochi's head, knocking him unconscious. Messerole and a normal-sized Carl came out of the wormhole, then put magic cuffs on the Baby Bruce, sending him away.

"...Now what are we going to do?", I said as I discharge my blaster.

This, said Carl and with a snap of his fingers, all the babies were reverted back to normal. Then the chimera slumped down on me, fatigued by the spell he cast.

"Wow! What a marvelous spell you made there.", remarked Messerole.

_Welcome_, replied Carl. _But after that, I can only use a teleport. Then, I need to rest._

Just then, my talisman rang. When I opened it, Celandra's face appeared.

"Euryflavia needs your assistance, Rael.", she said. "Descend to the Black Pawkeet." And with that, she was gone.

I then approached Carl and said, "Time to go."

"I know.", replied Carl as he and I vanished in a poofy cloud, leaving Messerole and the others to take care of the mess.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8: Catch Me if You Can

(A/N: Since this chapter's setting is on a sailing ship, there will be nautical terms for the ship's parts. Look them up to find out what they ae)

We were now at the Black Pawkeet, where Euryflavia, the ship's crew, a young anthropomorphic Gnorbu and a Kyrii in desert clothes were waiting. After I introduced Carl, and Euryflavia introduced Stan (desert Kyrii; hand-to-hand combatant and can make his blows 'hotter') and Scrap (the Gnorbu; hand-to-hand combatant also and instead, can make his blows 'colder', compered to Stan).

After the captain, a male antropomorphic Usul named Garin (you'd know him from the "Curse of Maraqua" plot), introduced himself to me as well, I asked him a serious question.

"When I had asked Queen Fyora about who would be helping me before I found out about the Black Ops, she said that you were unavailable. Why was that?"

"Well, you see… just after the Heartless, as Euryflavia called them, arrived in Neopia, I was attacked by a ship called The Seeker of Darkness. As my crew fought theirs, I soon saw that we were losing and we had to flee. We also lost contact with the rest of Neopia as we sailed. Still, we had nets and rods for fishing and enough supplies to last. Eventually, you guys arrived."

"Okay…"

Just then, the Neopet who was posted on the crow's nest called out, "Captain! I see the Seeker of Darkness beyond the horizon and coming in fast right behind us! Wait a second… I'm also seeing gliders coming from it and coming in fast! We better prepare for battle."

"You heard him, men!", yelled out Jacques, first mate of the Black Pawkeet and Garin's close friend. "Everybody get ready!"

As the crewmen of the Black Pawkeet drew out their swords (In Garin's case, his Maraquan knife), Stan and Scrap heated up (or chilled) their fists, Euryflavia got into Jelly Form and I in Electric Form (Carl needed to rest). Just in time, as I charged up an electric attack, the gliders flew overhead and from them dropped Crescendo, Air Pirate and Bandit Heartless. I unleashed my bolt, eradicating most of the group when I realized that the Pant Devil descended with them too.

As soon as the first Heartless landed on the deck, all hell (thus why I couldn't put it in The Neopian Times) broke loose. It was at this battle that Euryflavia utilized her Jelly powers to the fullest. She used it to distract some of the Bandit Heartless as they tried in vain to slice her off, but she instantly regenerated or reattached any lost limbs.

Both Garin and Jacques fared well as they stood back-to-back, fending off Air Pirates as they swooped down to strike the duo. They were pushed from port side to starboard side, berth deck to main deck, aftcastle to forecastle, yet they didn't let up, not even for a second.

Meanwhile, as the rest of the crew fought in place (Carl was sent below deck), Stan and Scrap were roaming around the ship, eliminating Crescendos as they saw that those Heartless are capable of healing their comrades and of summoning more Heartless, not to mention a stunning blow from a whack of its trumpet-shaped mouth.

But who was dealing with the Pant Devil? The answer is; me. As my Neopets once faced them in the Battledome, I am about to face him right now aboard the Black Pawkeet, with Heartless and allies all around.

"You think you can deal with me just as those other Neopets have? Well you got another one coming; I am no longer the weak Pant Devil you had to fight in the first episode of Defenders of Neopia; I am now stronger than ever, thanks to Eithne." Pant Devil ranted on as he fired away at me with his Rainbow Gun.

I responded with my own gun but he was too agile. We were battling all over the ship (and I didn't even get seasick; probably the pressure of battle), dodging attacks from others, and pushing away any interferers, be it Heartless (for me) or Garin's crew (for Pant Devil). As we battled, he suddenly fired a bubble beam, wetting my face and disorienting my vision, then as I wiped my face, he had a Rainbow Frost Cannon in front of me. Just before he could fire, a Crescendo was cascaded towards the cannon by one of the pirates and both were destroyed. I took the chance to zap the Pant Devil into oblivion with a surge of lightning.

"Well that takes care of that.", I said as I cuffed him with magic cuffs Scrap offered me before the battle, sending him away.

"We can't rest now!", Garin called out. "The Seeker of Darkness has arrived."

"I know, Captain! I was talking about the Pant Devil only!"

Sure enough, a black ship that looked like the Revenge (Captain Scarblade's ship) but blacker and with the Heartless emblem as the figurehead. Before both ships were about to collide, Stan, Scrap, and some of Garin's crew, Jacques included, were on the Jacob's ladders of the Black Pawkeet. On the other side, Pirate Heartless, Shadows, and the Rogue Zafara. Once both ships collided both teams jumped off the Jacob's ladders, bypassing one another in the air and landed on the enemy ship. Jacques and crew dealt with Fat Bandits on the ship, which were like the Large Bodies I encountered in Kreludor, but are able to shoot fire as well.

On the other hand, as the Pirates, Shadows, and the Rogue Zafara were about to land on the Black Pawkeet, I unleashed another lightning bolt, like before, eradicating most of the group and they landed. While Garin dealt with the Pirate Heartless and Shadows, Euryflavia and I took care fo the Rogue Zafara.

Euryflavia began her attack by launching Magic Pebbles, but the Zafara blocked it with her Enchanted Cape, then tossed one of her Smoke Bombs, not only spewed our a smoke screen, but also seared our skins and singed our fur (Kacheeks have 'em, although thin). Just then, the smoke was blown away and I saw Euryflavia, still in Jelly Form, in an aura, just like when she first discovered her Jelly form.

"By the Moon of Nessisca! Grant me the Ornate Gear!"

In all of a sudden, energy streamers, like the ones that transported me here in the first place, started to circle Euryflavia and when they disappeared, she was in the following Battledome equipment; Ornate Usul Shield, Ornate Usul Gloves, and Ornate Usul Collar. She then rushed at the Zafara and did a series of punches powered with her gloves, but the Rogue Zafara countered with her own gloves. As they exchanged blows, before I could assist, a Fat Bandit landed behind me and tossed me into the air.

In a flash, I grabbed one of the Jacob's ladders and hung on to it. I then flipped and positioned myself to sit on it and fire from there. However, I also saw Air Pirates headed my way, and even as I zapped them, they were eventually surrounding me, although the Fat Bandit has been taken care of. Luckily, Garin came up just in time and tossed me some K-bombs to use. Since I was unable to catch them, I tried batting them towards the Air Pirates with me shield… and it worked!

Meanwhile, the Rogue Zafara was gaining he upper hand as she was hacking away with her Power Dagger at Euryflavia, who was dodging and blocking with her Ornate Usul Shield (her regeneration powers also have a price; stamina). Luckily, the Air Pirates attacking me were dealt with since I suddenly had the urge to sneeze (don't know why). At that moment, my face was turned to the Rogue Zafara when I did sneeze, which sent an invisible wave at her, knocking her down (that ability was Kacheek Sneeze, as I realized later). Taking advantage, Euryflavia attacked with a Glare, knocking her out. She subsequently took out a pair of cuffs Stan gave her beforehand, and cuffed the Rogue Zafara, sending her away. At that time, Garin's crew and the Black Ops agent returned to the Black Pawkeet as the Seeker of Darkness sank.

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A few minutes later, we reached Krawk Island and Carl has recovered and got outside.

_That was a good nap._, he said. _How'd things go while I was gone?_

"Very well.", said Euryflavia. "I also discovered some new armor too."

Wow! That's great.

Suddenly, my talisman 'rang' again, and this time, Casandia's face appeared.

"Meet me at Kiko Lake. Aquanax and the Petpets will be waiting. There is a crisis going on here." And with that, she was gone.

I then approached Carl and said, "Time to go."

_I know._, the chimera replied as he and I vanished in a poofy cloud, leaving Euryflavia, Scrap, Stan, and the crew of the Black Pawkeet behind.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9: Time to Get Serious

Carl and I arrived at Kiko Lake, as told, where Aquanax was indeed waiting. The Petpets happened to be Dieter the Polarchuck and the Hasee Brothers Jimmi and Woogy. Also, there was what I presumed to be Squad Kiko Lake. It consisted of five Kikos colored Brown, Disco, Blue, Pink and Island, a Spotted Jetsam, and a Brown Peophin. Most of us were on the boat in the middle of the lake and all around us were burnin' houses.

"Hello there.", greeted 'Poke' Cellers, the Brown Kiko leader.

"Uhh… hi.", I greeted back nervously.

_Greetings. My name is Carl._ The chimera introduced himself. _May I ask what the problem is in here?_

"Sure.", answered Cellers as she charged her mini cannon. "A few minutes ago, we successfully evacuated Kiko Lake when the Heartless attacked. They were being led by a Giant Ghostkerchief and a Mootix Warrior."

_Okay. What are these doing here?_,Carl asked as he indicated the Petpets.

"They carry valuable intel about the Heartless but we can't send anyone out of this place because of the foreboding darkness."

"Then how did I get here if that were so?", I asked.

"Weren't you listening? No one can be sent out, but that doesn't mean no one can't be sent IN.", Ditan Colb, the Disco Kiko replied, who had a 'reef blower'-like device on his back.

"Oh."

"Anyway, we need the 'commanders' defeated before we can clear this place.", said Holbie Pinnock (Blue Kiko), who was piloting a large ASIMO-like robot, which was floating on the water on a 'panel'.

_And you need us to do it?_, asked Carl.

"Yes.", Pinnock answered. "Some of us will be working on the mass teleportation device, which was smashed from our last skirmish."

_What will it be for?_

"To return the citizens quickly and vice-versa in the event something like this happens again."

_Okay._

"So… Where are these commanders?", I asked.

"Out there.", said Helmo Timm, the Peophin, as she indicated the ruins.

_All right. We'll head there._, answered Carl. Just as he was about to teleport me and Aquanax, the Jetsam and the other two Kikos decided to join.

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We emerged from the teleportation to one of the shops, which was empty of course, prior to the evacuation.

After a minute, Carl spoke up.

_Okay. So who should we deal with first?_

Before anybody could answer, something zipped by, knocked out Moni, the Pink female Kiko, and disappeared again.

"The Mootix Warrior!", gasped Relle, the Spotted Jetsam as he readied a laser gun. Meela, the Island Kiko, pulled out a mini-gun attachment out of nowhere and placed it over her left arm. I switched to Electric from while Aquanax 'activated' her Faerie Wings.

Suddenly, I had an idea and at the same time, Meela was knocked out by the Mootix Warrior. I charged myself up with electricity, then when I heard something, I unleashed it, revealing the Mootix Warrior on a reception desk, but also jolting Aquanax, Carl, and Relle for a bit.

"Drat!", swore the Mootix Warrior. "Because of that Thunder Wave, I'm slower!"

Despite the surge, Reela managed to aim at the Mootix and fire but despite his cut-down speed, he was able to dodge them all and knock him out as well. Quickly, Carl, Aquanax, and I hightailed it outta here. Outside the building we were in, which was in ruins, we emerged into the streets. Out followed the Mootix Warrior, still under paralysis. Immediately, Carl zoomed up into the air and fired downward. Aquanax took me to the air and I followed suit with Carl. Mootix Warrior dodged almost every shot, and whatever hit him, he whacked back and missed.

After a minute or so, seeing that Aquanax and Carl have no intention of landing anytime soon, he pulled out his Faerie Slingshot and aimed first at me. As I whipped out my shield, he fired and hit it, but its impact was strong enough to force Aquanax to drop me and herself. The Mootix Warrior's next shot headed for Carl, who accidentally teleported to where it was headed, and knocked the chimera to the ground unconscious. Then he dodged a shot from my gun, and as he headed for me, dodged all the other following shots. Once close enough, he pulled out his spear and jabbed me numerous times, knocking me out as well (Nobody dies here except for Heartless). Before losing consciousness, I heard Aquanax chant, "By the Monolith of Galben Auriu! Bestow upon me your armor!"

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(Aquanax tells me this after I wake up.)

Aquanax was enveloped in a flash of light, and when it faded, she was wearing the Acara Horn Guards, Acara Gladiator Boots, Acara Helm, and Greater Acara Shield. (all Battledome equipment, of course). Unfazed by her new armor, and recovered from his paralysis, the Mootix Warrior zipped quickly and was about to strike at her Faerie Wings (which she kept) when she quickly, blocked his attack with her paw and held his spear between her toes.

"Who's fast now?", she taunted, then she invoked a spell (from Ancient Arcana) which increased the Mootix Warrior's size.

"You just made things easier for me.", he warned her.

"That's that you think!"

Aquanax zipped around him and landed more strikes with her paws and boots. In a few minutes, (Aquanax sucks at details) the Mootix Warrior was downed and when he shrunk, Aquanax used a special container that, when she put the unconscious Petpetpet in, warped away.

"Well that takes care of that.", she remarked as she went over to awake Carl and me.

_Oww…_, Carl said as he rubbed his head. _That hurt._

As I got up, I said to Aquanax, "So, you got Battledome Gear from your talisman too?"

"You mean you saw someone receive Battledome Gear likewise before me?"

"Yeah. It was Euryflavia."

Just then, there was an explosion far from where we were. As Moni, Meela, and Relle got out from the building where we first encountered the Mootix Warrior, they gasped.

"That's where the team is stationed!", the three said at the same time.

_Then we have no time to lose!_, said Carl. _Everyone hold on to me!_

We all did and we disappeared in a poofy cloud. We emerged back at the boat, which was empty, but on the lake, we saw and heard Holbie's robot striking at the Giant Ghostkerchief. Ditan and 'Poke' were on its shoulders, blasting at the big Petpet. But their efforts were in vain as the Petpet summoned its Ghostkersword and slashed the mecha in half. From behind, Helmo Timm came up out of the water from behind, ready to attack with her mini-cannon, but the Ghostkerchief descended on her, stayed there for a few seconds, then rose to reveal her unconscious, but not sinking.

"All right! That's it!", I spoke up, standing straight. Carl and Aquanax did a take, and even I was surprised. The other three, however, did not react, thinking this was my nature. "I'm sure I have a Battledome Gear set as well!"

Just then, my talisman flashed, and I suddenly knew what to invoke.

"By Rovere's Tome! Grant me the Oaken Gear!"

I was enveloped in energy steamers, then when they were gone, I was equipped with the Oaken Kacheek Sword and Shield, with the Wand strapped to my back. Since I did not prefer melee that much, I put away the Sword, and pulled out the Wand. I then pointed my wand at the Giant Ghostkerchief, who turned to me, now that we were the only ones left who can fight. On the deck, the Hasee Brothers and Dieter were cowering.

Thinking of a spell, a flower spun at the wand's tip, closed into a bud, then fired a beam of solar energy at the large petpet, piercing through it and setting it on fire. I thought that it would screech in panic and fly around until it is completely burnt out, but it stayed 'cool' and submerged until the flame was quenched. However, it also made it quite heavy when it got up. Carl, Relle, and Meela took this chance and fired their guns at the Petpet. But the Ghostkerchief summoned its Ghostkershield, and deflected all the blows to us, knocking us out except me, since I blocked with my shield. The gigantic Petpet then approached me slowly, ready to knock me out by 'phasing' on me. But before it could do so, it was shot by a flurry of bullets. I rolled sideways, and got up to see a Blue anthropomorphic Xweetok with a Tommy () Gun and in a green jacket with golden buckles, yellow pants, and brown boots. Next to him (as I found out later) was a younger Yellow Xweetok, also anthropomorphic, with a unique sword and shield and in a pink T-shirt reaching up to just above her navel (has quite a big bust too; she's anthropomorphic), white trousers, and boots like the other one is wearing.

"Help them out, Genaolu!", the Blue Xweetok ordered.

"On it!", she answered as she jumped way up high, ready to slash at the Giant Ghostkerchief, who responded by tossing a Ghostkerbomb. But she sliced it in half before it exploded, and spun like a yo-yo, continuing her slash through it, then she ended her move and landed on the boat. She then pulled out a container of pepper out of nowhere, then sprinkled it up my nose. Naturally, I turned to the Giant Ghostkerchief and sneezed, sending the Petpet cascading across the water (Remember; it's the Kacheek Sneeze).

The Blue Xweetok, who still was on the shore, fired away at it, but it didn't slow against the opposing force. As I awoke the others, Carl first, the Neopet with the Tommy gun jumped over the Ghostkerchief and slashed with his 'commando' knife, adding up to two slices. As the Petpet crashed, Carl teleported over to it, placed the magic cuffs on two loops embedded into its body, and the arrest was done. As he then teleported himself and the Blue Xweetok over to the boat, Helmo and the others were swimming towards the boat.

"Thanks a lot for your assistance.", said Aquanax as she shook paws with the two saviors.

"You're most welcome, miss. My name is Kawas.", said the blue Xweetok. He then turned to the girl Xweetok and introduced her as Genaolu.

"I assume you are private fighters, right?", I said after we all introduced ourselves. "Not part of the Neopian government, but just civilians who happen to take matters into their own hands?"

"Something like that.", Genaolu answered.

"Great!", Ditan blurted out, after drying himself off. "We could use your assistance, after what you did to help us."

"Thanks, but I think we're better off on our own."

_Ah. Aligned with the Chaotic Good, am I right?_, guessed Carl.

"Uhh… yes."

_But please, can you join us in our cause, especially me and Rael here, the Blue Kacheek. _Carl indicated me._ We've been into hot water too many times and he's not exactly experienced in fighting._

"Very well.", answered Kawas, then said to Genaolu. "Go with them, dear. I'll be fine."

"Okay, papa.", she said.

"Father and daughter.", Holbie muttered under his breath. "Maybe you could, reconsider and join us as… well… freelancers?"

"Sounds like a good idea. What do you think, Genaolu?"

But when he turned to see her, she was gone, and so was Carl and I, leaving behind a poofy cloud.

"I guess they're on their way already.", Relle said. "The chimera has the power to teleport."

"I see.", answered Kawas.

-Kawas and Genaolu belong to Tigrillo777 in DeviantArt. And I have asked permission to burrow them for my story, at least Genaolu.-


	10. Chapter 10

nightelf37: I decided to talk here too, but only for this chapter. Hopefully. And by the way, Sorry for the long delay; i had Final Exams at school.

Chapter 10: Unsung Heroes

With Genaolu, a new comrade, she, Carl, and I teleported to Terror Mountain, after a thought-message from Casandia was sent to the chimera. The exact location, however, was a certain Neohome that belonged to a certain Faerie. (If you saw the comics in the "Hannah and the Ice Caves" plot, where the Bori was introduced, you'd know this.) In that house, near the fireplace, were a familiar Blue Nimmo who had a 'water rifle', a Yellow Chia with a bazooka that launches water balloons. and a Baby Shoyru with some 'living marbles'. We looked at each other for a minute or so, then a familiar voice spoke up from behind us. When we turned around, it was Messerole.

"Nice to meet you again, Rael and Carl.", he said, waving his hand, then put out a hand in kind gesture of indication to our new Xweetok friend. (Pointing would be nasty)

"My name is Genaolu.", our new friend said, holding out a hand.

"Hello there.", Messerole replied, shaking Genaolu's hand. "My name is Messerole, a 'pet' of Rael here."

"Huh?" Genaolu was confused. "Pet? But isn't he one as well?"

"Didn't you hear the news?"

"Sorry.", Genaolu apologized, rubbing the back of her head with her right hand.

"Okay. I'll brief you onto our situation here."

From beginning to end, he explained to her my transformation, our report to Queen Fyora—

"Who is she?", Genaolu asked.

"I can't believe you don't know her!", I gasped, flabbergasted by her 'outdated' knowledge.

"All right.", Messerole complained. "I'll brief you in later." He then introduced the Nimmo as Lumi (The _very _same onefrom the "Usul Suspects"_)_, the Chia as Geoffrey (from "Chia Bomber"), and the Shoyru as Barry (from "Attack of the Marblemen").

Fearfully, I asked Barry, "Aren't those Marblemen dangerous?"

"Don't worry.", said Barry, much to Genaolu's surprise (I wonder why). "Ever since finally containing their threat on my own, I tamed them to follow my command."

"How is that baby able to talk?", Genaolu said.

"Baby's just my color.", Barry retorted. "You are SO outdated."

"Yeah.", Lumi agreed. "Have you been living under a rock? You never heard any sort of news at all?!"

"I'm afraid not.", Genaolu apologized.

_Sheesh!_, said Carl. _You have a lot to learn. _The chimera then placed his hands on Genaolu's head, and transmitted lots of information of Neopia to her. At least that's what I think he did since she cringed in pain from the "information overload". (A/N: Remember; if you have looked up my lookup, or Mrfipp's, who is the 'owner' of Carl, you will see that Carl knows everything, but cannot speak orally.)

After giving her the information, which is, practically everything in Neopia that she missed, and my adventure so far, Carl fell into a heap.

_Didn't know I could do that._, he remarked to himself.

Just then, a rumble was heard.

"Sheesh!", Messerole swore. "I forgot to tell you guys that Terror Montain is under siege."

Another rumble was heard.

"We gotta defend this 'base' and then get outta here when the going gets tough.", Geoffrey told us.

I went to the window, looked outside, and saw Sniperwild Heartless, Green Chia Bombers (whose cannons had mud balls on them), and one Green Tyrannian Chia whom Geoffrey identified later as Grackle.

"I'm afraid it a bit late for that Geoffrey.", I said to the Chia.

"Grackle!", he said, looking out the same window I was at.

(A/N: Told you so.)

"Who?", Barry asked.

"He's my sworn ememy ever since his tribe invaded my home and after I had shamed him in front of his kin in a duel."

"Why weren't there Heartless in Kiko Lake?", I wondered to myself, not part of the conversation.

Genaolu noticed and explained, "Before we encountered you guys, my dad and I were battling black ant-like creatures at Kiko Lake."

"That was them!"

Suddenly, we heard something go down; the door. When we turned to it, which was a good distance away from the window we were looking out at, Grackle and a couple of Sniperwilds were ready to strike. Knowing 'mud overpowers electricity', I readied my gun and shield. At the same time, Lumi did so as well with her rifle, Geoffrey with his bazooka, Barry with his Marblemen, Carl with his guns, and Genaolu with her sword. A standoff.

"Attack!", Grackle commanded and all **** went loose; there was a series of firing mud ball, bullets, Marblemen, you get the picture. In this hallway onslaught, Genaolu and I were at the front, shielding our comrades behind us. In an instant, Carl teleported behind the enemy, wiped out the Sniperwilds and soon had Grackle at gun point.

_Not a very wise decision to lead the scouting force, eh?_, Carl taunted.

"Correct. Because I'm not Grackle."

"What?!", Geoffrey gasped, who happened to know Grackle's details head to toe.

"He knew this would happen, so he had an attack on two fronts."

_Crap._, said Carl.

Sure enough, there was 'ransackery' going on in the house and while we dealt with the team in front of us, including the decoy Chia Bomber, we reached the open door, where Sniperwilds and other Chia Bombers got ready to attack. A minute later from defending against the outside threat, Barry's Marblemen were tired, Lumi's arms were aching, and Geoffrey's bazooka was getting heavy on him. As Carl, Messerole (in Portal Mode), Genaolu, and I still stood, the real Grackle appeared at the hallway with some Chia Bombers.

"Looks like you have no way out this time, fools.", he taunted, then commanded to his troops. "All right, men. Eliminate everyone but the Kacheek, who is to be taken in."

"Not a chance!"

Messerole opened up a portal in front of Grackle and out of it emerged a bunch of balls, both mud and Sniperwild. As this knocked out most of Grackle's comrades, Grackle himself charged and fired his mud cannon, but Messerole opened up a portal right in front of him and he crossed it all the way to his troops outside, who had fired another volley. This took him down, then Carl teleported all over the place, firing at the remainder of the troops. Once they were gone, Geoffrey, now recovered, walked towards Grackle and cuffed him, sending him away.

(A/N: I seem to be saying this too many times.)

Once that was taken care of, Geoffrey turned to us and said, "Let's get outta here."

"What was that?", I asked, since I was rubbing snow in my eyes.

"This place is no longer safe. Besides, I wouldn't want to be around when Taelia comes back."

"Who?", Genaolu asked.

Carl looked at her and said, _Looks like you've got a lot to learn about the outside world._

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We were now at the Ice Caves, which was abandoned like the peak, where we've last been.

"Who should we meet next?", Barry asked.

"Since we're in the Ice Caves, I wonder if the Snowager is on the loose?", I thought to myself. "Or is he still guarding his horde of stuff?"

Suddenly, we heard voices in the Negg Faerie's cave. Then,.in another direction, we heard the Snowager's cry.

"Into the cave!", Lumi ordered and we all followed. Inside, we saw row after row of Neggs (this was beyond the 'reception' desk), tempting us to get them. However, we somehow resisted the temptation as we saw the Negg Faerie herself bound and gagged. Behind her was an ugly Green Grarrl with a red horn on its snout.

"Gargarex!", Geoffrey gasped.

"Looks like I can call up for a ransom, eh?"

"As if!", Messerole retorted.

"This Faerie for that Kacheek. Deal?"

"What about… we fight for her?"

"Sounds good to me."

We all got into battle stances, then Gargarex charged at us, after kicking the Negg Faerie out of harm's way. Despite our firing at the Grarrl, he kept going and bowled over Geoffrey, Genaolu, and Barry, knocking them out as the rest of us jumped out of the way. As Carl had jumped over, he flipped upside down and fired at Gargarex's back. This made him stop and turn around. As Carl landed, Lumi and I fired water and laser at the Grarrl, shotting at different parts as to avoid steam. Messerole, on the other hand, carried the others away as we held off Gargarex.

Meanwhile, we were gaining the upper hand as we fended off the Grarrl. Keeping our distance, and circling from three sides, Gargarex couldn't stand and soon enough, he had enough and surrendered.

"All right. Take her."

Knowing that we've won, we untied the ropes on Negg Faerie and Lumi cuffed Gargarex.

"Aww, man.", Messerole suddenly complained. "When will I get my first Battle Gear?"

Apparently, someone had told him about it as we went down into the Ice Caves, I thought. I stared at Carl, who hung his head in admission.

"Well, anyway, let's get going.", Lumi said. "Down to Happy Valley we go!"

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As expected, since this is a time of chaos from the Heartless, the Happy Valley isn't a happy place at the moment. Instead, there were Sniperwild, Soldier, and Blue Rhapsody Heartless all over the place. Within the bunch was a Tyrannian Buzz, who seemed to be the commander of this horde.

"Tyragh!", Geoffrey exclaimed.

Suddenly, everyone in the Valley, including Tyragh and the Heartless stopped and looked at us. Also, I noticed a giant burlap sack over the Buzz's shoulders moving. Apparently, whatever was inside it didn't want to be inside it.

"Let your hostage go!", Lumi demanded.

"Not a chance, fools.", Tyragh responded. "You better come down here and fight me and my horde to get her back."

"Her?", Messerole gasped.

"That's right. The Snow Faerie herself is in this here anti-ice bag."

"All right! That's it!", Genaolu shouted. "You're not getting away with this while I have anything to say about it!"

She then quickly descended the hillside and charged at the Heartless. A second later, we all followed.

Slashing and blocking, Genaolu easily made it through the horde until a stray ice attack from a Blue Rhapsody froze her right leg in place, forcing her to defend herself in place.

Meanwhile, the rest of us, with a row of Marblemen in front of us, fired with everything we've got (Messerole used his Bubble Blaster). With a combination of bubbles, water balloons, Marblemen, purple crystals (Carl), and light, the Heartless horde eventually disappeared, leaving Tyragh and the hostage Taelia.

"Looks like I gotta handle this myself.", said Tyragh as he put his sack aside.

He then charged at us with a one-two-three combo with his club, but Genaolu was in front, she defended the attack. He then tossed a Fireball, but Carl deflected it with one of his own (two, actually). He followed with a Spark, but Carl shot it again. Tyragh then leaped upon his club in such a way that his feet were in the air, then he went down and actually slid towards us, but we jumped over him just in time. He then did a Water Jet, but Barry countered with a Lava Spit, and both attacks collided into steam. The Buzz then ran towards us and was about to heave down his club, but Barry summoned a Marbleman to bite on the weapon, holding him off. As he swung his club around, finally killing the Marbleman, I launched a K-Bomb Garin gave me after its attack with "The Seeker Of Darkness", but Tyragh simply maneuvered around us and the K-bomb followed like a missile (so that's why they always hit), bowling over us without exploding.

"Geez!", I said. "That didn't happen when I used them last time."

Tyragh then was about to summon a Stone Legion, but Lumi acted fast and fired strategically at his hands, cancelling the spell. After a couple more attacks on him on all sides with the help of Messerole's 'portal' Power, Tyragh was about to drain Genaolu's health, but one of Barry's Marblemen got in the way as Lumi conked him on the head with a 'baby bottle', which exploded in his face.

After doing a couple more attacks on him, he pulled out a boomerang and tossed it. It flew like a missile and struck each of us before being stopped by a 'stray' bullet from Carl. Immediately following was a Fire Spit, but Messerole shot a sonic wave from his antennae (Grundo Blast) against it. Geoffrey proceeded to shoot a ball of water but Tyragh tossed a dart, which made it burst and the water fell short of his face. As we saw the Buzz use a Scorchstone, Genaolu pulled out one too and cured us all. Then as one, we opened fire at him with water, Marbleman, crystal, magic (Genaolu hid it until now), and laser. However, Tyragh had a trick up his sleeve.

"DARKNESS!", he screamed and he was enveloped in black tendrils and when they went away, he was covered in black 'animal skin' and more ferocious than ever. The next thing we knew, he zipped around the field and beat us down brutally one by one. He started with Lumi, then Geoffrey; Carl was next, then Genaolu. Before Tyragh was able to proceed with me, I heard Messerole invoke an incantation. When I looked at where he was (Tyragh followed suit out of curiosity thus pausing his attack on me), I saw him surrounded in a white digital-styled sphere.

"By Jos'toreo! Grant me Full Armor!"

Out of the sky, I saw pieces of metal fly towards the sphere and surround it, spinning and circling it as they went. Then there was an explosion from that sphere, sending scrap metal flying. When the dust settled, there stood Messerole equipped with "Full Grundo Armor" and "Grundo Communications Helmet". He then held out his right hand forward and in a flash, the "Grundo Sword of Justice" appeared.

Barry and Genaolu, who didn't become targets (yet), quickly stood by his side and prepared their weapons (Barry's is a Marbleman). Since I saw Messerole from behind Tyragh, I held my position and had my blaster and shield ready.

Then, Tyragh moved… to where I was, where I whacked his back with the shield, pushed him forward and fired at his back. At the same time, a Marbleman from Barry held him in place as Messerole and Genaolu charged with their swords. As they were about to slash at Tyragh, I did a headshot at the Buzz for good measure. Both sword-wielding Neopets attacked the Buzz together and followed through in between me. Tyragh turned around and, weakly, tried to charge another ball of darkness. Both sword-wielding Neopets struck again, this time at that ball, then at Tyragh, bringing him down.

"You were a real pain, y'know.", I said, cuffing Tyragh, which sent him away.

"Glad that's over.", sighed Messerole in relief as he returned to normal Yellow. Lumi and Genaolu gut busy untying the rope on the burlap sack, and freeing the Snow Faerie.

"Thank you, all of you for freeing Terror Mountain of the Heartless.", she commended to all of us.

_All in a day's work._, smirked Carl.

"You really look exhausted from you battle. It's my turn to help you."

"Thanks, ma'am, but—", Genaolu began to say, but Taelia already began. We were covered by a soft blizzard, and when it stopped, we were covered by a thin veil of snow. Naturally, we shook it off and the moment we did, we felt refrashed and rejuvenated.

"Wow!", gasped the Xweetok. "That was a great spell!"

Suddenly, Messerole's talisman rang and in the form of a hologram, Nightsteed's face appeared.

"Nightsteed!", I gasped.

"Rael, Carl, Genaolu, get going to Tyrannia. It's been frozen over by Lady Frostbite."

"They're on it!", said Msserole, then he said to the three commanded by Nightsteed, "Go! We'll clean up the mess."

"Yeah!", agreed Geoffrey. "Tyrannia is that way!"

The Chia Bomber pointed to a road sign that clearly stated it. The three of us then walked down the path to the 'prehistoric' realm.


	11. Chapter 11

nightelf37: Sorry for the late update and 'sucky' chapter. Real life stood in the way. Happy Chinese New Year!

Chapter 11: Turning Up The Heat

An hour later, after Carl, Genaolu, and I left Tyrannia en route to Terror Mountain, we were still headed there. I was already freezing, chattering my teeth, despite the coat of fur in my Kacheek body.

"Man!", I said. "Are we at Tyrannia yet?"

_Strange._, Carl muttered. _We should be there by now._

Just then, Genaolu called out, "Hey! Isn't that a giant omelette?"

Carl and I turned to look, and indeed THE Giant Omelette was out in the distance, and we realized that Tyrannia has been frozen.

"Aw, crap! I forgot that Nightsteed told us of this", I muttered. Just then, we saw someone coming. In the distance, we could see a Shoyru and a Kougra. A second later, I saw that it was Fire Paw (an orphan adopted by Scorchios), and Tychophon.

"Ah! Thank goodness!", the Shoyru gasped, then reported. "Tyrannia's been frozen solid!"

"I think we can see that.", Genaolu remarked.

"Who's this?", Tychophon asked, ogling at her in an 'addictive' manner. (1)

As Fire Paw pounded the Shoyru's head, I answered, "This is Genaolu, whom Carl and I met at Kiko Lake."

"And my name is Fire Paw.", the Kougra introduced, shaking hands with Genaolu.

_Nice to meet you._, Carl answered as he shook hand after._ I'm Carl._

"Nice to meet you, Carl.", Fire Paw answered. "Just because I'm a Fire Neopet doesn't mean that I'm 'on fire' and that I burn to the touch."

_Oookay. What happened here, by the way? Wait… I—_

"Vira and Lady Frostbite have teamed up to freeze this place, and they got "Heartless", as Tychophon called them, helping them accomplish their goal."

—_was about to say that. Thanks for telling._

"Incoming!", Genaolu suddenly gasped. Sure enough, we saw Heartless coming our way. Blue Rhapsodies, Green Requiems, and some 'new' Darkballs.

"Oh, great.", Fire Paw sighed, as his forepaws were set on fire.

"Here we go again.", Tychophon muttered, brandishing his Obsidian Dagger.

"Mind if I join in?", Genaolu asked, readying her weapons.

"Maybe we should stick behind for now, Carl.", I whispered to the chimera. "I want to see how Fire Paw fights."

As Carl and I held back, the other three charged as one. Fire Paw sped straight for a Darkball, half as fast as a cheetah, and ran over it. Then he jumped for another and did the same, scarring them with fire.

Tychophon faced at most four Blue Rhapsodies. They began to cast ice spells, but he protected himself with a barrier of wind (Shpyru Air Block). While this encased him in ice, he wasn't entirely frozen. He then smashed the ice dome and the shards scattered, taking down the Blue Rhapsodies and any accompanying Green Requiems.

As for Genaolu, she simply used slice-and-dice as well as hit-and-run tactics. She would cut down and enemy with impressive skill, and evade another's attack with relative ease and grace. And not with just the sword either; she also adds her shield among her means of attack. Bashing an enemy with it while she slashes another with her sword. Only now did I see her elegant battle style since when she first fought with us, she wasn't quite alone, or something; I don't know what's the correct term.

Soon enough, the enemy was gone, and we decided to move on, starting with the Giant Omelette.

* * *

We reached the Omelette, which was frozen of course, and near it were two Neopets, a Lupe and a Scorchio, both encased in ice. I saw that one of them was Sabre-X and, being mischevious when I can get away with it scot free, I whispered to Messerole to nick as many slices of omelette as possible while Fire Paw and Genaolu (with a fire spell) thawed them out.

He managed to nick about 10 slices (all common ones, unfortunately) when I warned him, "He's almost warm. Hurry." Messerole rejoined me just in time as Sabre-X and the Scorchio, Glubgar, were fuly thawed out. As they were formerly frozen, they slumped to the ground, tired.

_Are you okay?_, Carl asked.

"We're fine.", Glubgar said. "Thanks for thawing us out."

_Don't mention it._

"No really! I appreciate it."

"What about you, Sabre-X?", I asked. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah. I'm fine.", Sabre-X answered. "I better head back to the Town Hall."

"Oh, sure." As he turned to leave, I just remembered something. "Wait! How's the rest of the tribe?"

"Well, when Lady Frostbie and Vira sttacked, we told the villagers to stay in their homes. The tribe leaders, Kyruggi, Graarg, myself, Plesio, Myncha, and…uhh…"

"Never mind.", I handwaved it off. "What did the Council do?"

"The Council, the six of us, attempted to fend them off, but their army was too strong. They were not Neopets I know of, or even the forces the Monoceraptor led against Tyrannia. They were creatures as black as shadows, with yellow beady eyes that strike fear without being scary."

"The Heartless.", I muttered.

"If that what they're called… These Heartless have managed to decimate our armies. Even the Jelly Chia reinforcements brought by the "Neopets Agency" fell like stone eroding against a waterfall. Worse, our fallen Neopets turned into Heartless themselves. It was a nightmare of nightmares. I…"

_We understand._ Carl interrupted. _You better get back now. We'll take care of this._

"But—"

_The Heartless that have decimated your armies have been sent back to the base, because I know it takes a lot of willpower to keep the Heartless here to do as they command. With little control now, I'm sure we'll face few problems._

"…"

_Don't worry. I'm they are tired out from the large numbers they used to infiltrate Tyrannia._

"I hope you're right.", Sabre-X said, somewhat not convinced.

"Don't worry.", I said. "Carl here's a prodigy. He knows **everything, **only, he couldn't speak."

"All right. I entrust the liberation of Tyrannia to you all."

_You can count on us., _said Carl.

With that, Sabre-X left us. We turned to Glubgar, who said, "I wish to accompany you in your mission."

"Whoever said we weren't accepting your help?", Genaolu said.

"How should I know?", the Scorchio asked.

"Never mind that.", Tychophon cut in, preventing a potential argument. "We should get going."

* * *

We were on our way down the plateau when suddenly, we saw a demonic Acara next to a block of ice, which contained another Scorchio.

"Vira!", I gasped.

"Ah… so we meet again.", Vira answered, making a scratch on the block of ice.

"You met her?", Fire Paw asked.

"Just about every 'user' meets her after at least a month or less.", I replied. "I met her when I 'browsed' around Neopia Central Marketplace after learning of the National Neopian Bank."

"What is your intent here?!", Genaolu demanded. "What are your benefits in freezing Tyrannia?! Do you have hatred against this 'nation'?!"

"Blah, blah, blah!", Vira answered. "I don't care! We're being 'paid' to do this."

"The Fire Faerie Eithne, isn't it?", the Xweetok sneered. "What does she want?!"

"Don't know, don't care! So long as I can wreak havoc outside the Battledome, what she wants doesn't matter."

"I wonder why you didn't do that in the first place.", I said sarcastically, folding my arms.

"Those pesky challengers keep beating me and the Defenders of Neopia always keep me in check!", Vira scowled, taking a chunk of ice from the block she was next to aand crushing it in her hands. "Now that the Heartless are here, the Defenders of Neopia are busy holding off the Heartless and the challengers are absent since their owners have become Neopets and are kidnapped by Eithne."

"Why side with Lady Frostbite, of all Neopets? Other than the fact she is a villain, like yourself?", Tychophon asked. Fire Paw was sneaking behind her in an attempt to cuff her while she soliloquized in front of us.

Rather than answer, Vira backhanded Fire Paw and electrocuted him with a device on her right paw. She wasn't supposed to know that, yet she did.

"You really thought that was gonna work?", Vira snickered evilly as Fire Paw went down for the count. "Thanks to the transformation that was done to me because of my vanity, my…whatever it is near my ears that All Acaras have can detect movements all around me. I honed this sense so that I would detect them even in such windy conditions like this."

"Eesh!", I said.

Vira charged at us and I was caught at the neck before I could transform into Lightning Mode. (2)

"Not so fast!", Vira taunted, then slammed me on the icy soil. She then approached her face to nme, scraping her Spiked Collar at my skin.

"AAAAUUGH!", I screamed as the spikes coursed through me. I also heard some things whizzing through the air and knocking out someone.

"I used my Battle Bats and knocked out that chimera friend of yours.", Vira said. "As for the rest, my Heartless are dealing with them. Surrender to me now."

While she was saying that, I was silently chanting the words that transform me into Lightning Mode.

"Not if I can help it!", I shouted, now at Lightning Mode, zapping Vira at point blank range. Unfortunately, she had, at about the same time, used Drain Life on a nearby large Body Heartless and her vitality returned to full.

"I'll admit it. You nearly got me there.", Vira remarked. "But I'm a tad more resourceful than you are!"

She took out an Evil Muffin and was about to stuff it into my face when a rainbow-colored ray knocked it off her hand. I looked and saw Tychophon, in his Desert Mode, aiming a Rainbow Gun at Vira. At the same time, his amulet was glowing.

"Blue Wing Armour! Activate!"

In an instant, he flashed blue and when the light faded, he was wearing the following batledome Equipment; Shoyru Helmet, Shield, and Sword, as well as the Full Shoyru Armor..He also had the Winged Shoyru Amulet and Spear, the latter attached the back of his armor since he was holding the sword.

"That's a different invocation compared to the others before.", I thought to myself.

"Ooh. I'm scared.", Vira said mockingly.

"Oho, you better be.", said Tychophon as he suddenly vanished before her very eyes.

"What?!", she managed to gasp before noticing a shadow covering her. She looked up, and she saw the shoyru descend upn her, sword aimed downward. In response, she whipped out her Winged Dagger and intercepted his blow. She then shoved him back, but the Shoyru flipped midair and started descending again, sword pointed at her once more. This time, Vira took off and engaged Tychophon in a swordfight.

As for me, I got up and helped the others. One by one, the Heartless were zapped down and our comrades were now free to gang up on Vira, but they decided instead to try and free the frozen Scorchio. As we went to work, Glubgar recognized the 'prisoner' as Magnus the Torch. Quickly, we used controlled fire spells to melt the ice.

Meanwhile, the two swordfighters continued in their match, rising in the air, and descending to the snow as they went. Just then, Vira leaped away and pulled out her Ancient Manchu Bow. As Tychophon charged, she fired an arrow, which knocked off his shield. She fired again, and did away with his sword, too. Before she could fire a third time, Tychophon pulled out his spear and threw it at Vira. She caught it in time, dropping her bow, but the velocity of the spear shoved her back as its tip glowed. A second later, the Shoyru charged and punched her in the face, then followed with a kick, then retrieved his spear from Vira and bashed her with its butt end.

Vira lost consciousness from the blow and landed on the ice block, freeing Magnus from his prison and startling the rest of us a bit. We recovered almost instantly and cuffed Vira, sending her away.

"Thanks for freeing me.", Magnus said as he got up slowly. "That Vira was a complete monster. She and Lady Frostbite ganged up on me. *cough* *cough*"

"You better rest.", Fire Paw suggested as Tychophon landed next to him. "You must be tired."

"I'm fine.", Magnus argued as he slowly got up. He then spewed out a breath of flame upwards to heat himself.

"What was that for?", Genaolu asked, startled by the flame.

"I wanted to make sure I was still able to breathe fire. I thought I'd lose it from being in this ice block for so long."

"I wonder if I still have mine?", Glubgar muttered.

"Of course you do!", I told him. "You used them to try and free Magnus not too long ago!"

"Oops. I forgot.", Glubgar replied, rubbing the back of his head with his 'hand'.

_Anyway, cut the small talk._, Carl said._ We still got Lady Frostbite to deal with. As well as Tyrannia's citizens._

* * *

Finally, we reached the village down the plateau and, with Lady Frostbite nowhere in sight, went to work on freeing the inhabitants. Some of them weren't even frozen, just in hiding. We gathered them, and they helped us thaw out the ones frozen. Luckily, most were Skeiths, Draiks, and Scorchios so our job was easier with their fire breaths (3). Everyone else used either fire abilitites or stone tools. Half an hour later, everyone was free.

"Thank you for all the help that you've done.", said the vilage elder.

"It's no big deal.", I said, leaning back a bit and putting my hands behind my head. "Most of the citizens we freed did most of the work."

"Most of what?", a chilling voice said. This startled all of us and we looked up (where the voice came from) and saw a blue female Krawk with gold markings and white mane levitating above us. She was also wearing light blue clothing and a pendant.

"Lady Frostbite!", we all gasped.

"Grr…Vira has failed?", Frostbite muttered to herself.

Carl took this chance to teleport behind Frostbite and attempt to gun her down but the Krawk foresaw this and backhanded him, just like Vira did with Fire Paw, only this time, Carl was encased in ice.

"Again?", I complained as Carl fell to the ground.

"Haha, he won't be moving anytime soon.", Frostbite said as she pulled out two Tartan Snowballs and hurled them toward us. As colors and snow flew all over the place, the citizens were fleeing to the houses. Magnus, Glubgar, and Genaolu unleashed flames as a counterattack. Soon, they were in the air as well, attacking the icy Krawk with everything they've got.

Meanwhile, Blue Rhapsodies were appearing all over the place. I took care of these with zaps of lightning, Fire Paw breathed fire upon them, and Tychophon cut them down with his sword, still in his Blue Wing Armour.

Erstwhile, the village elder (who was a Scorchio) was melting the ice encasing Carl. He was about 50 percent done when Frostbite was about to land on him, but luckily, he got out of the way just in time and had the nerve to take her Snowglbe Staff from behind her. Unfortunately for him, she noticed this, but fortunately, she didn't have the chance to freeze him as she had to defend from a fire breath from Glubgar. From behind, Magnus grabbed her and activated his Rings of Fire, creating two hoops of flame that circled him, and seared her scales.

"You don't stand a chance against me.", said Frostbite as she summoned a Freezing Potion on her free hand and smashed it at Magnus' face.

"You froze me! I can't believe this!", said Magnus as he lost his Rings of Fire and was slowly encased in ice (once more). Frostbite slipped away from his grasp just before the great Scorchio was frozen solid. The now frozen Neopet fell to the ground, and on top of the village elder, knocking him out, who was nearly finished with defrosting Carl. Luckily, this was all the chimera needed as he was now conscious enough to struggle and smash out of his icy prison.

At that time, Glubgar and Genaolu turned their attention to the Heartless, and Tychophon to Lady Frostbite. Both Shoyru and Krawk were now clashing spear and Ice Sceptre with one another. This continued for minutes until he got himself and her into a shove-of-war through their weapons. Thinking fast, Frostbite was about to invoke the incantation that would activate her Sceptre's gem to freeze Tychophon, but the Shoyru had invoked the incantation for his Winged Shoyru Amulet, which created a gust of wind that caught Frostbite's Sceptre's magic, which in turn froze Lady Frostbite.

"Do you think ice will hold me?!", she said, even as she was encased.

_Nope._, said Carl. _but I bet this will._ The chimera was holding something which turned into a giant box that was themed like the handcuffs used by the Black Ops Agents (4). Carl brought the box over Frostbite and when he closed it, the box disappeared with the Krawk.

* * *

"Thank you for liberating Tyrannia from the Heartless.", the village elder said as he shook Carl's hand. Around us, Tyrannia was losing its wintry state caused by Frostbite, Vira, and their Heartless.

_You're welcome._, said Carl. _Would you allow us to rest here for the day? We've been on so many missions in a row._

"Very well."

* * *

After a well-deserved rest, I got up from my Straw Bed (how it's co comfortable I'll never know) when suddenly, my talisman 'rang'. I held it and saw Niten Hiroru on the 'screen'.

"Take Carl and Genaolu to Darigan Citadel.", he said, then he was gone. Quickly, I called for the two and they arrived. I told them what Hiroru-san told me and after saying quick goodbyes to the others, we teleported to our next destination.

(1) What male wouldn't have a face like that when looking at such a sizable bust? Look for her picture at Tigrillo777 on DeviantART.

(2) I won't be consistent with the names, okay? So don't complain.

(3) Only Shoyrus are incapable of breathing fire naturally. The Shoyru Inferno is a high-level combat skill and Tychophon's amulet grants him temporary access to this.

(4) He was given it by someone in the Neopets Agency while he was belowdeck in the Black Pawkeet.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12: Darkside Heroes

Somewhere in Darigan Citadel…

It was empty in the streets of Darigan Citadel. Prior to the Heartless invasion, the citizens have been evacuated and it has since become a battleground between Heartless and the Neopets Agency.

Somewhere, in a barren lane, there appeared a shining light. It then exploded to reveal me, Genaolu, and Carl.

"Okay. We're here.", I said. "Now what?"

Just then, Heartless of all kinds we encountered so far appeared all over the place. We were surrounded with no way of escaping.

"Drat!", Genaolu muttered.

Before we knew it, they were upon us, but a dark wormhole opened beneath us and sucked us in. It also closed in time to block off the Heartless that tried to follow. There were black and purple in the wormhole 'tunnel' as we crossed it. We stayed on its path for a minute when suddenly, it opened. We were shot out of the portal, and as it closed behind us, we got up to see Messerole, Master Vex, the warden of the Darigan Citadel dungeons, MAGAX, the anti-hero Wocky and arch-rival of Hubrid Nox, and a certain Buzz I never seen before. (1)

"Hey there. Nice to see you again so soon.", said Messerole. "Let me introduce you to our comrades."

"I think I know two of them.", I said. "The Wocky is MAGAX, rival of Hubrid Nox and anti-hero, the Mynci is Master Vex, warden of the Darigan Citadel Dungeons, and who is the Buzz?"

"He calls himself the Buzz Avenger.", the Grundo answered, then he asked. "May you introduce us to your companions?"

"Oh, yeah. The Xweetok here is named Genaolu and the other one is Carl. My name is—"

"No need.", said the Buzz Avenger. "Messerole has told us your name, Rael."

_It's a pleasure to meet you_, said Carl.

"Carl's mute, but he's very knowledgeable and speaks through telepathy.", I explained.

"What's going on here?", Genaolu asked.

"Well.", Master Vex began to explain. "As you saw earlier, the streets of Darigan citadel are empty. It has been vacated prior to the invasion of the Heartless. Why we are still here is because Lord Darigan was missing from the throne room."

_Hasn't it occurred to you that maybe His Majesty has left in his own accord?_, Carl suggested.

"Lord Darigan is not one to abandon his kingdom in times of peril, leaving behind his people."

"I didn't know that.", I mulled.

"Of course, you didn't. After all, this nation was the invading one prior to our Orb's theft."

"Okay, okay. I get it. I wonder where Squad Darigan Citadel is. You are Black Ops agents, right?"

"Only I and MAGAX.", said the Buzz Avenger. "But Vex here is trusted and that's how we're here. As for the standard Squad, they are elsewhere on another skirmish."

"What about Squad Meridell? They are closest here, right?"

"They went missing 6 months ago."

"That can't be!", I gasped. "The Altador Cup was less than six months ago, when Kiko Lake failed to participate."

"Those were magical clones created by the Agency to cover up for their absence.", MAGAX answered. I was a little surprised since I never thought of him to be the social type. Just then, he twitched his ears and said, "Anyway, we better leave here. I sense darkness approaching."

As he said those words, giant fish-like Heartless appeared (Aquatanks) and leading them was a blue Jelly Chia.

"I heard the Agency had created Jelly Chias.", it said.

"Whoa!", Messerole gasped. "I had no idea you could speak!"

"I hope you wouldn't turn on them and eat them upon a pang of hunger.", it continued, ignoring Messerole.

"That won't happen.", MAGAX retorted. "Our forces are 'programmed' as soldiers to follow our directives and are trained in combat. Thay are also poison-flavored to discourage consumption."

"I see. Anyway, turn in the Kacheek and I'll spare the rest of you."

"Not. A. Chance. By The Black Perphats Of Kutsua! Grant me the power of portals!", Messerole countered as he transformed to Spotted Form.

"I can't give up. Not now.", I added as I said the invocation to switch to Lightning Form and Messerole followed with his Full Grundo Armor.

"You better not expect an easy fight from us.", said the Buzz Avenger as he pulled out a Buzz Blaster on his right hand and a Buzz Gauntlet on his left.

MAGAX said nothing as he charged his forepaws with energy. Vex got out of the way and hid behind a cell. (2)

Seeing it has to fight, the Jelly Chia pulled out its Snowball Wands, and then it ordered the Aquatanks to charge. And they did. Well, they charged electric power, that is. Regardless, Magax unleashed the energy he charged at the Heartless, which left them weakened. Then, Carl and I fired our guns at the Chia, who twirled its wands, shooting snowballs to fend off the attack. Meanwhile, Buzz Avenger, Genaolu, and Messerole dealt with the Aquatanks and other oncoming Heartless.

Jely Chia continued casting until it could cast no more. Grunting, it discarded the wands, pulled out a Jelly Net and launched it to me and Carl and we were caught in it. It was sticky inside, so we couldn't move. The Chia then pulled out a sword and shield made out of jelly from its body.

Just before it could strike us, Genaolu stood in the way with her shield and Messerole grabbed the Chia in the back.

"Don't interfere, fools.", said Jelly Chia as it quickly spun around and swept off Messerole and Genaolu at the same time. This was it for the Grundo as he clutched his talisman.

"By The Monuments Of Morado! Grant me your defense!"

In an instant, purple streamers surrounded him and gradually his armor shifted and transformed into the following Battledome Gear; a Grundo X2000 Chestplate, a Battered Grundo Battle Helmet, an Antennae Ring on the right hand, and an Obedience Medallion.

"Ah. I heard that some of you got talismans from the Faerie Queen.", sneered the Jelly Chia. "This'll be a tough one."

"Oh, you bet.", said Genaolu as she cut in and rejoined the fight. As quick as lightning, the three sword and shield wielders charged at one another and got lost in a fight cloud conjured by Genaolu. As the tussle went on, I said to myself, "Will anybody come and get us out of here?"

"I'm here.", said Master Vex as he came over and cut the gelatinous bonds with a knife. He didn't dare chew them off in case it was poisonous.

_Just where are the others?_, wondered Carl as Jelly Chia managed to incapacitate Genaolu and was now facing Messerole. The two of them circled each other, and then rushed towards each other. Each of them tried to make a hit on the other, but they were parried each time.

This clash continued for another minute when Messerole realized he could use the trinkets in his form. Quickly, after shoving back the Jelly Chia, he aimed his Antennae Ring and fired a series of heat waves, sending it further back. He then invoked something and the Obedience Medallion fired a wave of darkness on the Jelly Chia. As the attacks ended, Messerole slumped to the floor and as Buzz Avenger and MAGAX returned, Jelly Chia held up a white flag.

"I surrender."

Buzz Avenger then pulled out the cuffs, and locked them onto Jelly Chia's arms, sending it away.

_Just where were you two after you fought off those Heartless?_, Carl asked, none too pleased.

"We got carried away and fought off more Heartless upon seeing them, we forgot to get back to you.", Buzz Avenger explained.

"Also, I found Hubrid Nox.", added MAGAX. "But I resisted the instinct to follow him."

_Ah. I see._

"Aren't we supposed to rescue Lord Darigan?", Master Vex cut in.

"Oh yeah. Reminds me.", I said as I reverted to Blue Kacheek form. "Where's Galgarroth?"

"Oh, him? He was evacuated with the rest of the citizens and he and Haskol are in charge of the prisoners."

"Okay."

"Enough talk.", Messerole cut in, back in his usual Yellow form. "Let's go."

After half an hour of Heartless encounters, we all made our way to Darigan's chambers. The moment Master Vex opened the doors, we were surprised with what we saw. The room had changed into a Darigan version of Meridell's throne room, with Hubrid Nox on its throne.

"Where's Lord Darigan?", Vex demanded.

"You should be a bit more attentive.", he answered as he pointed up. We looked to see Lord Darigan himself, who was tied to a rafter above the throne and was upside-down. (3).

"I'd love to stay and chat, but as it stands, I must go.", Nox continued, and then he made a run for the window. However, MAGAX stood in his way.

"Let's settle this bout once and for all, Hubrid Nox!"

"Very well, MAGAX.", the vampire Chia conceded. "However, while you and a comrade deal with me, your friends should handle THIS!"

Hubrid Nox clapped his hands and in a moment, a massive, muscular, humanoid Heartless with black skin appeared. Its legs were rather short and its feet were very thin and they curled upward. Its arms were quite long, and it had two relatively small, twisted wings on its back. There was a large, heart-shaped hole in the Heartless's chest, and its head was covered in dozens of twisted, black tentacles, with only its small, glowing yellow eyes visible behind them.

"Meet Darkside, the largest Pureblood Heartless you'll ever see.", Hubrid Nox introduced, then got ready for battle. "Prepare to be lost in the darkness."

In a flash, he and MAGAX charged and started trading blows, with Carl deciding to joinn the brawl. As Vex stayed behind at the door, Genaolu, the Buzz Avenger, Messerole, and I dealt with Darkside.

Darkside started by punching the ground, creating a pool of darkness to summon Shadows to assist it in battle. The four of us stayed on our toes as we took them down and landed some hits on Darkside itself. During that brawl, MAGAX blasted Hubrid Nox through Darkside's heart hole, and as the Chia ascended to the rafters, he and Carl followed through and up. All the while, Darkside and the rest of us stood out of their way as we continued fighting.

A minute later, Darkside scooped up an orb of darkness, taking any Shadows with it, and the orb split into many smaller orbs that spawned from the ceiling and started to rain onto us. While Nox and his opponents dodged them with ease, it wasn't that easy for us below. While Genaolu and I blocked the attacks with our shields, Messerole switched to Spotted form and diverted the orbs to Darkside. As for the Buzz Avenger, despite evading some of the orbs, he got badly beaten up. Once the shower stopped, Messerole was quick to use Heal on him as I started firing at Darkside's head while Genaolu performed a series of slashes.

As we did that, Hubrid Nox managed to kick MAGAX out of the window, but Carl kept up with his attack and could not be dispatched. As the chimera continued teleporting around, the rest of us below witnessed Darkside create a dark force in the heart-shaped hole in its body, which shot homing dark missiles. The four of us either defended from the attack or dodged it. After that, it started to punch the ground and spawn Shadows.

"Again?", Messerole complained.

"I believe this boss has a set pattern in its attacks.", said Genaolu.

"Will that help us?", Buzz Avenger asked.

"Perhaps."

Meanwhile, MAGAX managed to get back in the battle as he saw us still fighting Darkside. He loosed to find Hubrid Nox somehow getting the upper hand on Carl. The moment the Chia intercepted one of the chimera's blast and rebounded it to him, MAGAX found his chance and fired a blast of energy at Nox. This knocked him down straight to Darkside's head just as it was about to shoot homing dark missiles again.

This collision stunned them for a while and I took the chance to perform a charged head-shot. I missed though, but Messerole guided my shot with his portal power and it struck home. The Darkside began to teeter and finally, it faded into darkness. As for Hubrid Nox, MAGAX cuffed him personally.

_Thanks, MAGAX_, Carl replied.

"Don't mention it."

Suddenly, my talisman rang and Celandra appeared on its 'screen'.

"Head for Haunted Woods.", she said. "There is a special item that is to be obtained and you, Genaolu, and Carl are needed. Celandra out."

With that, she was gone. Quickly, I called for the two and they came over. I told them what Celandra told me.

"Don't worry about here.", said Messerole as MAGAX and Buzz Avenger released Lord Darigan from his bonds. "Go."

And with that, Carl teleported us to our next destination.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13: The Gaming Experience

When Carl, Genaolu, and I left the wormhole we entered upon teleportation, we energed at the Haunted Woods fairground.

"Now what was it we should be doing again?", Genaolu asked.

"Oh! You came!", a familiar voice said. The three of us turned around to see Euryflavia with a Yellow Chomby and Orange Pteri who seem to be native from Tyrannia. There was also a White Poogle with a 'number' plastered on his sides.

_Euryflavia!_ Carl greeted.

"Hey there, Carl.", greeted the Usul.

"Who are these three?", I asked.

"Oh. The Chomby is Milo and the Pteri is Gif'n. They were the founders of the Tyrannian Mini Golf game. The Poogle Racer is named Moogi."

_I see_, replied Carl. _What are their capabilities as Black Ops agents?_

"Well, we were issued special bludgeons in the form of golf clubs.", Milo said as he and Gif'n pulled out golf clubs colored green and marigold.

"These babies are unable to unleash rocks or gales at will."

"Ah…wind and earth.", I said. "I forgot to introduce—"

"It's okay, Rael.", Moogi cut in. "Carl already did that."

"…Okay. So what is it that we need to do here?"

"Well, we received intel from Number Six that they have a key that leads from Neopia to their building, where Eithne has set up HQ."

"Why would we need a key?"

"Because other than the Whack-a-Staff Member game, or something, that's the only way to get there."

"I see. What are your abilities as a Black Ops?"

"Well…"

"Are we just gonna stand around here?", Genaolu called as she, Euryflavia, Milo, Gif'n, and Carl went through the entrance into the fairground. The second we did though, Heartless ambushed us from the stalls. Seconds later, we were surrounded by Gargoyle, Wight Knight, and Creeper Plant Heartless. It was then we saw our comrades start to kick ass.

Milo, Gif'n, and Genaolu unleashed earth, wind, and fire at their surrounding opponents, dodging attacks as they went. Moogi was plowing through the Creeper Plants with great speed. Euryflavia was riding on him, unleashing Earth attacks and ice balls from her slingshot.

Meanwhile, Carl and I were back to back, firing at the Gargoyles who tried to swoop down on us. For some reason, even if I know I'm not exactly accurate when it comes to shooting at any angle other than straight ahead (I do quite well in the Time Crisis arcades), every single shot always landed on their mark.

"Whoa.", I muttered. "It feels like my arm is doing the shooting."

_Why so?_, asked Carl.

"I know I'm not really good at handling these in real life, but here, I feel like I've been practicing all my life."

_Despite the fact that you only went through, oh I don't know, about ten 'skirmishes' since coming here?_

"Yeah." I learned from Carl that my Neopets have been told him everything that happened so far up to before his arrival to save me and my allies from the Fire Spectre back at Meridell.

_Hey! We're done._

"Huh?"

Sure enough, all the Heartless were gone. And I didn't even noticed as I conversed with the chimera. Maybe my arm is doing the shooting after all.

"So… what are we supposed to do?", Euryflavia asked Gif'n as he gave her a pair of cuffs.

"Well, it was during the time humans still resided in Neopia. Of course, a few years later, the humans either left, or somehow became Neopets. Technically, this made the Tiki Tack Man the last of his kind living in Neopia."

"Anyway, they hid the pieces of the key in various rigged games in the fairground.", continued Milo. "Or as it in the places where the rigged games were eventually posted? I always confuse the two."

"What were the rigged games again?", I asked the two. "I haven't been to the Haunted Woods that often. I mean, I'm not exactly fond of such scary places."

_*sigh* Here's something to jog your memory._, Carl said as he laid his hand on my head, just like what he did to Genaolu back at Terror Mountain. In a flash, I remembered. Luckily, I didn't have to tell the others since they already knew (Carl told Genaolu).

Carl and I were situated at the Cork Gun Gallery. I heard the game was glitched (but less so than the others) and for some reason, despite my accuracy in "straight ahead" shots, I always kept missing. I'd bet that even the coldest sniper would cry foul to find out he keeps missing as much as those with accuracy inferior to his. Even with Carl at my side, I doubt we could unlock the secret. As for the Aisha who usually tends to the stand, she had gone to hiding, but a Jelly Chia soldier was there instead.

It and Carl then looked at each other and stared for a few moments. I guessed they were talking through thought, but then I saw the Chia soldier making uintelligible grunts. Carl remained silent, as he can't speak and since he wasn't thought-speaking to me, I can't find out what he's saying. After a while, Carl turned to me.

_I found out how to locate the piece of the key hidden in this stall._, explained Carl. _The only thing that has to be done is to hit all objects at least once with only three misses. Nothing more, nothing less._

"How did it come to that?", I asked. "I mean—"

_The ones who set up stalls in these places found out about the pieces, and thought they can hinder the luck of others in these places. Must be some occult horoscope or something._

"Oh well.", I sighed, then asked. "Let's do this. Or…would you rather—"

_Allow me._, Carl said. _I haven't missed my mark yet. I'm not gonna miss now. Many times I always used Mrfipp as target practice, and only he has dodged my shots, but only because I go easy on him._

Carl then twirled his guns, then dismissed them, taking the cork gun from the stand. He then aimed at one of the targets and then started to shoot. At that same moment, Shadow Heartless began to appear and head for our position. I turned around to attack those Heartless and I hit each without problems.

"*sigh* I hope Carl is as good as he claims to be.", I muttered as I fired away.

Moogi and Genaolu, were at the Coconut Shy, where they were trying to knock all the coconuts in a certain order. It was harder then it looked since the coconuts were nailed to the posts. What was worse, Heartless were attacking on occasion. Genaolu saw this and told Moogi to hold them off while she thinks of something. After half a minute, she made her move.

Seeing a Creeper Plant about to shoot at her, Genaolu promptly dodged and the Creeper Plant's seeds went straight for the first coconut, knocking it over. The Xweetok turned to her comrade and said, "Moogi! Leave the seed spitters be! I need their seeds to knock down the coconuts!"

"You got it!", the Poogle answered as he then pounced on the Gargoyles, leaping really high to reach them. Kicking off of them in succession, he managed to remain in the air for a substantial amount of time and was even able to do this long enough to make a safe landing on the ground. He then rushed the Wight Knights and pummeled them with strong headbutts. He was literally wiping the floor with them, dodging seeds as they flew past him and to the coconuts.

Meanwhile, Milo, Gif'n, and Euryflavia were almost done with their task in the Test Your Strength. All they needed to do was to pound on the target and make the meter reach just about near the top, not all the way. And so far, Milo was going a bit too strong and he continued pounding the target with conjured stones with increasing size and velocity. Gif'n was making measures in getting the exact power exerted. While they did that, Euryflavia was holding off the Heartless

"Keep at it, Eury!", said Milo as he readied another stone. "We're almost done with the challenge."

"It's Euryflavia!", scoffed the Usul as she took down a Wight Knight with a fissure. She then did a spin kick on another of those Heartless. She then followed with a shockwave stomp and a subsequent Throw Pebbles ability.

(A/N: Remember in the early chapters? My Neopets have read books on spells, combat, and other stuff. They were only able to utilize them after getting their talismans. They just temporarily forgot about these skills because they were exhilirated in using their talisman powers.)

"Almost…there.", muttered Gif'n as the meter reached just above the goal. Below, Milo tried again and with a stroke of luck, and a stray Gargoyle to break the fall a bit, the stone Milo conjured landed on the target, and the meter finally made it to the required point. The second it did, the ground underneath the Test Your Strength structure began to shake, crack open at sections, and then emit an eerie glow at the cracks. This eliminated all the Heartless and a 'time capsule' levitated from one of the cracks.

"Whoa!", Euryflavia gasped as she, Gif'n, and Milo approched the capsule, which promptly opened, revealing something resembling a key's loop. It was colored black, yet it was very shiny. It also had a star-shaped hole, as if it was a slot for connecting it to another piece.

"We got a piece of the key.", Gif'n declared as he took the piece from the capsule, which surprisingly, didn't have any surprise security measures. Maybe the rigged game challenges were security enough.

Carl had managed to accomplish the task required to unlock the secret. As I finished firing at the Shadows, the ground just ahead of the stall cracked feom behind me, and from there, a 'time capsule' emerged. As the capsule opened, Carl approached it, reached inside, and took out a something that was supposedly a key's teeth. However, these 'teeth' resembled a slim cylinder with a star-shape attached to the cylinder's wide side. The cyinder had a star-shaped hole, presumably for connecting it with another piece.

_Hmm. This star looks vaguely familiar_, remarked Carl._ If there was a white square around it, it'd resemble the Neopets logo._

"Psst.", I whispered to his ear. "Let's not break any 'walls', considering I am from behind one of those."

_Sorry. It's just in Mrfipp's fanfics, breaking the fourth wall is occasional. Especially episodes featuring him inbetween chapters._

"Well, this is 'my' story, so Mrfipp's regulations can only work if 'I' allow it."

_Okay. But aren't you just—_

Before Carl could finish, Chia Clown Robots appeared out of nowhere and ambushed us. The second that happened, Carl teleported himself, me, and the key piece away. and those automatons landed in a heap where we were a split second ago.

"Run for it!"

Genaolu and Moogi were running for their lives from an army of clowns that were robots and shaped like a Chia.

"What are those things?", the Xweetok asked the Poogle Racer.

"Chia Clown Robots!", Moogi answered through his teeth, where he held the 'key piece', which was a black cylinder with two star-shaped pegs on each side. "Blast them from a distance! They're really explosive and they launch pies of doom at ya!"

Just as he said that, one of said pies struck the ground just behind them, splattering a few bits on the two's feet. Still, they kept running as the robots went for them like a horde of zombies. Eventually, they ran into us, and seconds later, so did Euryflavia and her companions.

"Man! Where did these come from?", complained Gif'n.

"They're from us!", said two voices. We all turned to see two clowns, one who seems to be the basis of the robots we encountered, and a Kacheek with the monseter clown look. And he looked real pitiful.

"Chia Clown and Mr. Chuckles!", I exclaimed.

"We finally meet personally, nightelf_37.", Mr. Chuckles greeted. "But don't think we're easy."

"You see, not only are these Heartless on our side, but we're no longer the weaklings your Neopets have made us thanks to Eithne.", Chia Clown added.

The two of them then summoned loads of Heartless and Chia Clown Robots. In a few seconds, we were surrounded. With nowhere to go and escape, we had no choice but to fight. However, because of the battle that soon followed, we were split up.

Genaolu and I now had to contend with about 400 robots and a hundred Heartless. Gif'n and Milo had to deal with a hundred fifty robots and the same amount Heartless. Moogi and Carl faced the Chia Clown and 250 of his copies. And then Euryflavia is fighting Mr. Chuckles and 250 Heartless. Of course, all the Heartless were Creeper Plants, Gargoyles, and Wight Knights, and some Shadows.

"Darn it.", I cursed as I busted a few robots with my Flower Power. "How are we gonna get out of this now?"

"Don't worry.", Genaolu assured as she hacked away at a Heartless. "I got your back."

"No need to tell me twice!"

Milo and Gif'n were back to back, plowing down Chia robots and Heartless alike. With gales and boulders, blobs of darkness and robot parts flew all over the place.

"This is just too easy!", Milo remarked as he swung his club and obliterated more enemies.

"True.", agreed Gif'n. "But the same cannot be said for our allies."

Sure enough, Carl and Moogi were having a bit of a disadvantage against Chia Clown, who was driving around in his car, squirting his flower, and shooting his Ultra Rainbow Flash at the same time. In addition to the Chia Clown Robots, this proved to be a problem to the two of them.

If that wasn't bad enough, Euryflavia had bigger broblems. She was alone, and she had to deal with Mr. Chuckles and two hundred and fifty Heartless. And even with her Ornate Usul Gear, while she totally eradicated the Heartless in a manner of minutes, Mr Chuckles was tougher than before. Not that they were the ones who last met. Even then, it wasn't a piece of cake for Tychophon, who dealt with him and brought him to justice during his Defenders of Neopia mission.

"Ready to give up, pipsqueak?", sneered Mr. Chuckles.

"You're one to talk for someone your stature!", Euryflvia scoffed, now that her opponents are down to one.

"Don't think I'll be easy as your Shoyru friend made me."

"I don't expect you to be. After all, you're stronger with the darkness and Eithne, and I'm stronger with my talisman."

Mr. Chuckles pulled out his Ultra Bubble Gun and began firing away at Euryflavia, who dodge-rolled each bubblebeams that came out. Euryflavia followed with her Ice Slingshot. However, Mr. Chuckles pulled out a U-Bend to reflect all her attacks. But Euryflavia dodged those attacks and used an earth attack on Mr. Chuckles. However, the clown used a Super Custard Pie imbued with darkness to counter that, and then he rushed for Euryflavia and caught her hand, zapping her with his Hand Buzzer. He then followed with his Giant Clown Shoes, kicking Euryflavia in the tail and back. Afterwards, he moved out and placed the turret of the Red Frost Cannon at Euryflavia's back. When the Cannon fired, there was an explosion.

"Hahaha!", laughed Mr. Chuckles. "Victory's mine!"

"Not yet!"

The smoke cleared and it showed Euryflavia in an aura. Her talisman was glowing and she was levitating.

"By The Amethyst Of Sinipunaien! Bestow on me the Purple Armor!"

The second she finished her invocation, purple streamers surrounded Euryflavia and imbued themselves into her gear, which then morphed. Her collar turned into a helmet, her shield became armor, and her gloves merged to form an axe in her hands.

"You think your new equipment will scare me?", scoffed Mr Chuckles.

"I don't need to!", replied Euryflavia. "I just need to beat you, that's all!"

The Usul began to charge with her weapon, and Mr Chuckles charged as well with his Ultra Bubble Gun.

Carl fired away at Chia Clown, who swerved about in his car and used his Seltzer on Moogi, who wasn't doing so well. (He held the key in his mouth and kept it closed.) As for the chimera, he also fought the Clown Robots using expert dodging skills to make the robots' attacks hit each other.

"Just give up already.", the Chia Clown taunted as he drove around, evading Moogi's attempts to tackle him out of his car. "Your hybid friend will fall sooner or later, and you will run out of strength. Spare yourself the suffering you'll have to endure if you go on."

"Like I'll allow Neopia to fall into Eithne's rule?", Moogi grunted as he stopped and his opponent drove in circles around him.

"Yes! Surrender now and I may just convince her to spare you and make you my personal slave."

"You know, about my hybrid friend, it looks like he won't be falling anytime soon."

"What?"

_It's true!_

Carl was atop a pile of decommisioned Chia Clown Robots for one second. The next, he was gone in a poof of smoke. Then, he re-emerged above the original's car.

_Show's over for you, circus freak!_

The chimera unleashed a barrage of bullets and destroyed the car, sending the Chia Clown flying. Moogi rushed over to where he was about to land and butted him square in the face with his head. Then, Carl telported where the Chia Clown was about to land and this time, the chimera slapped the cuffs on the Chia's hands, sending him away.

"Well that takes care of that.", Moogi said as he came over to Carl.

"What a piece of cake!", said Milo as he and Gif'n joined the two.

"We're done as well!", called Genaolu as she and I headed away a pile of trashed robot parts and to our comrades.

_True._, said Carl._ But…_

The chimera thumbed to his left, and we all looked there, seeing Euryflavia in her new gear, swinging her weapon wildly at Mr. Chuckles, who was having difficulty dodging after taking a few surprisingly accurate axe swings. In the end, swung her axe down on Mr, Chuckles…and knocked him unconscious with its broad end. She then cuffed the clown and he was gone in a second.

"Alright. Now we got the first key."

Gif'n, Carl, and Moogi offered their keys to Euryflavia, and after looking at them for a few seconds, she connected them and assembled the key. The second she did that, her talisman 'rang', and it revealed Casandia's face.

"Come to Roo Island immediately, Rael.", the Air Faerie said. "Take Genaolu and Carl with you. Euryflavia, I will relay you and your comrades your orders later." And with that, she was gone

_Well then._, said Carl. _Time to go._

The chimera took Genaolu's and my hand, and then we teleported away, leaving Euryflavia and the others to perform their next orders, whatever they are.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14: Friends Save The Day

Carl, Genaolu, and I emerged at Roo Island, where we saw a few Neopets scrambling for their lives as Heartless moved around. Just then, I realized my eyes were sore.

"Ow!", I groaned. "Being up for so long is taking its toll on my vision!"

"I'll remedy that.", sid Genaolu as she applied eye-drops on me.

After my eyes were revitalized, Carl said, _I could use some, too._

As Genaolu offered him the eye-drops, I saw a rather fanciful blue Peophin, two Chias colored green and purple who seem to have a bond with one another, and one familiar Shoyru.

_Tychophon! _Carl greeted as he came over with his companions.

"Hey there.", Genaolu greeted. "Who are these Black Ops agents and what are their skills?"

"That's not the way to make introductions!", Tychophon replied angrily, then regained his composure. "Anyway, the Peophin is Venuquin, f.k.a. Harquin. She has a 'thing' with the water and its creatures. Jolly and Olly are brothers and are excellent cannon users and are perfectly synchronized partners."

"Okay…so why are we here?", I asked. "And where's the standard NA Team of Roo Island?"

"Team Roo Island is at—", Jolly said.

"Neopia Central.", Olly finished.

"Why? What happened to Judge Hog and the Defenders of Neopia?"

"They had to scatter their—"

"—forces at the outskirts."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!", Genaolu said. "You're able to finish each other's sentences?"

"Anyway, we managed to find and assemble the second key.", Tychophon said as he showed us a key which was like the first, only it was white and the 'teeth' seemed to resemble a square with a star-shaped hole. "The pieces were found in various places around Von Roo's coffin. At least the vampire himself wasn't around."

"Maybe he's in cahoots with Eithne and he can't stick around even if it's not midnight."

_Wait a second. _Carl said. _It seems to me that the two keys are meant to be joined together. The first key's teeth had a star-shape, you know._

"If the key is complete, Why are we here?", I asked.

"While the mass teleportation device has managed to evacuate the citizens, it was smashed in the last attack.", Venuquin explained.

"So…"

"So we'll have to use the spare one Kiing Roo uses."

"King Roo has one?"

"That's right. Also—", Venuquin began to say.

"The King isn't as stupidly cheerful—" , Olly cut in.

"As everybody thinks. In fact,—", Jolly continued.

"When the situation calls for it,—"

"He's a good fighter—"

"In his own right."

"And not even Advisor Broo knows of this?", I asked.

"Nope."

"Let's not dawdle.", Tychophon cut in. "Let's go."

With that, the seven of us made our way to King Roo's castle.

"Strange…", Genaolu mulled. "Not a Heartless in sight since heading there."

"Geronimo!", two voices called.

We looked up to see two Meercas swing in ropes headed for us. We all jumped out of the way, but Jolly and Olly didn't make it in time. As the two Chias spun from the impact, the two Meercas let go of the ropes, flipped, and landed a short distance away.

"Aww, man.", groaned Tychophon as he pulled out a QX-92 Neutrino Blaster. "It's the Meerca Bros., Heermeedjet and Merouladen."

"We were told to keep you away from there.", said the first Meerca.

"So keep you away we will.", finished the second as both then brandished a katana and tomahawk respectively.

"They may be brothers as well,—", Olly groaned as he got up.

"But our bond is greater than theirs.", Jolly finished as he joined his brother.

"Let's go. They'll take care of them.", Venuquin said as she and Tychophon led the rest of us inside the castle.

"I never thought you to be the sort to abandon comrades.", I whispered once we were inside."

"I'm not abandoning them. I have faith in them."

Back outside, the Meerca Bros. have summoned Wyvern Heartess to ride on. Jolly and Olly were firing at them and the oncoming reinforcements, destroying them with relative ease. The two Chias stood back to back, turning around, and watching each other's backs.

"Over there!"

"Thanks, Bro."

"No problem."

"How are they so good?", sneered Heermeedjet as he tried to snipe at them with a Bubble Blaster.

"If only the two of us were that close.", Merouladen wondered out loud.

"That's it! You're a genius!"

"I am?"

"Yeah! Let's split them up and deal with them one on one."

"Good idea."

Meanwhile, in King Roo's castle…

Vennuquin, Carl, Tychophon, and I traversed the empty hallways. For some reason, Genaolu managed to get lost, but we didn't consider it. The castle was as cheerful as ever, but the fact a crisis is going on somehow made me scared all the more. It's like…the cheerfulness of the place is trying to entice me into leting my guard down despite what is happening outside.

Just then, a (beach) wave of mucus headed our way in front of us. Tychophon shielded us with a magical force field (from the Spell books I had given him and my other pets to read). The snot surged for a while, and when it stopped and settled, seeing the snot was still flooding the room, my Shoyru then placed one hand on the floor and raised it. Once he dissipated the barrier, everyone saw the door ahead. Above it was an open window (presumably) for ventilation because the 'wall' windows could not open; only its curtains, if it has any.

"I'm afraid you'll have to leave me here.", said Vennuquin. "I'll catch up with you."

"Gotcha.", agreed Tychophon as he grabbed hold of me, and then took off for the window. Just as he reached it, a ball of snot was headed for us, but I turned around and blocked the attack. We then saw Meuka surf on a shield and continue to shoot snot and pinned down both Carl and Vennuquin.

_We'll take care of him!_, the chimera told us._ Go!_

As Carl then teleported around and shot away at the Snot Meerca, Tychophon and I crossed the window and landed… in another hallway. I was hoping the door would've led straight to the throne room, but it guess I was wrong. I rarely went to Roo Island. Shrugging, the two of us continued down the hall. Just as we reached an intersection, we saw Genaolu.

"Whoa!", Tychophon gasped. "Where were you?"

"Sorry. I got distracted by the cheerful stuff in the castle."

"Since we're in the middle of a crisis, it somehow scares me.", I said.

"Why?"

"The contradictiing moods, of course!"

"Hey! I think I see the door!", Tychophon called. We turned and saw an ornately designed door, which seemed to emanate an aura of cheerfulness. Because of Neopia's current condition, I got scared all the more. Regardless, we crossed the door and saw—

"At last we meet face-to-face."

We confronted Roothless (from the 2008 Daily Dare), who was sitting on King Roo's throne. As for King Roo himself, he was suspended a few feet above his throne, tied up by ropes. Advisor Broo was nowhere to be seen, either as a foe or as an ally.

"King Roothless!", gasped Tychophon.

"Ah, one of the many users who have accepted my challenges and won them.", the green, evil Blumaroo greeted. "While not a daily player, you chose to do a combination of beating records from Abigail and AAA. Also, you decided to take on my final challenge…and succeeded."

Roothless then stood up from his throne and snapped his fingers. From a dark corner, Scram, Roothless' blue Wocky henchman, walked into view, playing with three yo-yos. Upon seeing his boss glare at him, he pulled back his yo-yos, then blew a black whistle that seemed to emanate darkness.

A second later, yet another kind of Heartless emerged from the floor. This one looked like a Shadow Buzz with yellow eyes, black lustrous armor, a more feral appearance, and the Sword of Skardsen in its hands.

"I'd like you to meet…the Heartless of the one and only…Skardsen!", said Roothless, boasting on his achievement. I reeled back in shock from seeing the Heartless and its weapon. Tychophon got scared as well. Genaolu just looked confused.

"Who's Skardsen?"

"He's a legendary champion who used the powers of darkness to fight against the Forces of the Undead sometime in the distant past. Copies of his sword were first found in Eliv Thade's castle, and then Fyora found them useful, replicated it, and sold them at the Hidden Tower. Of course, they don't come cheap."

"You've been reading your books well, young Shoyru.", Roothless mock-congratulated as he clapped his hands. "Now…prepare for your demise."

As quick as darkness, Skardsen's Heartless charged. Immediately, we all dodged the attack. Tychophon tried to take a few shots with the Neutrino Blaster, but that was quickly smashed by an attack wave of darkness from Skardsen's Heartless.

"Darn these weapons.", growled the Shoyru. "Why is it that really cool-looking items suck compared to simpler ones like the Attack Pea?"

"To throw off newbies, I guess.", I said as we continued evading. I knew that while my shield can defend against this, I can't hold my ground from the force of the attack.

Back at the hallway we left, Vennuquin managed to call up some Jelly Chia soldier reinforcements, who got to work on sucking up all the snot. A few of them also assissted Carl in trying to shoot down Meuka.

"If only I had some aquatic Petpets to command.", Vennuquin sighed.

"Here.", a Jelly Chia soldier said as he offered a small water tank with Jawshells, red-and-purple clam-like Petpets. "Use these."

"Thanks.", replied the Peophin as she then sent 'brain waves' to the Petpets to eat the snot. Immediately, they went to work as Carl continued evading whips from Meuka's elongating snot tail. It didn't help either that the Meerca had a gun that shot the same substance as him. He also had a shield to defend himself.

"There's no way you can defeat me!"

_Heard that one and variations of it thousands of times already._, said Carl as he teleported right behind Meuka, grabbed him, and sent them both crashing to the floor. However, before both made impact, the Snot Meerca then turned into a blob of mucus, which wrapped itself around Carl and rematerialized right behind him, doing what the chimera tried to do to him.

A split-second before hitting the ground, they were knocked to the wall by a loud burp—from the Jawshells. Carl teleported away, leading Meuka to slam the wall alone. As the chimera reemerged behind him, Carl fired away on his guns, forcing the Snot Meerca to submit. Meuka did so and was 'cuffed'.

Meanwhile, Back outside…

As Chia soldier reinforcements made their way to the castle, the Meerca Bros. managed to separate Jolly and Olly from each other. However, the two twins turned out to be just as capable alone, although their moves mimic'd each other as they finally knocked their heads, rendering them unconscious. Jolly and Olly nodded to each other, then pulled out their magic cuffs and clapsed them on the tails of the Meerca Bros., sending them away.

"With that taken care of—", Jolly began.

"Let's head on in.", Olly finished. With that, the two Chias joined their Jelly counterparts, who were cleaning up snot. Vennuquin was cleaning herself and Carl up.

_Good thing you're done!_, said Carl. _Let's Who knows what the others are facing right now?_

While that was happening, despite me assuming Electric Form and with the Oaken Gear, which I first used back at Kiko Lake, and Tychophon entering his Desert Form and in his Blue Wing Armour, Skarden's Heartless was just plain strong. Already, he has knocked out Genaolu and I was tiring out, too. I was never the sort with high stamina. One of the Heartless' attacks blew me straight for the wall. It didn't knock me out however and I saw Tychophon's talisman glow.

"I Evoke The Emerald Tower Of Roheline! Green Gear!"

Instantly, green streamers surrounded Tychophon's Blue Wing Armour and those began to glow white and join the streamers, covering him entirely. A second arter, th streamers dissipated to show him in his new gear. On his person were a Shoyru Battle Shield and Sabre, Bouncy Green Shoyru Boots, and the Green Shoyru Wing Armour, Tail Armour, and Chest Protector.

Skarden's Heartless was unimpressed and unleshed a massive wave of darkness. Tychophon responded by opening a vortex (from Ancient Arcana) to suck in the darkness. The Heartless then charged with his sword, but Tychophon swiftly swerved the attack, bashed the Heartless' head with his shield, and then struck its sword arm with his sabre, forcing the Heartless to drop the Sword of Skardsen.

The Shoyru then cast Heal on me, then zipped around the field, hacking away at Skarden's Heartless. Finally, it was downed. He then went up to King Roo and cut his bonds. The Blumaroo king landed expertly, then leaped for Roothless, who was trying to get away. Meanwhile, Genaolu was waking up.

"Not this time.", King Roo said as he slammed down on him and cuffed him, sending him away. He then turned for Scram and tossed a few dice, which rolled to the floor, showed sixes, and then exploded, knocking him out.

"Thanks for your help.", he then said.

"No problem, Your Majesty.", Tychophon replied sheepishly as he shook the king's hand.

"Your friends also did what they can. They have my thanks as well."

"Too bad it wasn't enough, Your Majesty.", Genaolu said, fully awake, as she helped me up. "By the way, where's the portal?"

"What por—oh, that!" King Roo went to his throne and pushed a hidden button at the bottom. Suddenly, the ground shook as a part of the wall receded and moved to the left, revealing a large metallic ring on a grey platform with stairs leading to it. King Roo the pushed another button and the device started to operate; a portal seemed to open within the 'ring'. At that time, Jolly, Olly, Carl, Vennuquin, and a regiment of Jelly Chia soldiers arrived. "Nice timing. Come on."

Everybody started to move through the portal when something rang in the king's hat. He took it off, took out a little phone, and answered it.

"Hello? Yes? Okay." He then put his 'phone' away. "Rael, Genaolu, Carl. Don't cross the portal. You three will be taken to your next destination. We got a bigger crisis on our hands."

"Bigger than this?", I asked.

"Yes. Something that may even threaten the very existence of Neopia. If they reach it, it may be destroyed."

"What?", Genaolu gasped.

Sometime later…

King Roo, Carl, Genaolu, and I were outside the castle, waiting for something. Soon, that something came. It was a jeep (military style) on treads. On the wheel was a blue Kacheek with a cap covering his face.

"A jeep?", I asked. "I thought there were no cars in Neopia."

"It's because of pollution issues.", its driver said. "And this thing runs on uranium."

"Isn't uranium a toxic metal?", I asked. "I know that a small chunk of it can produce a lot of energy, but are you sure it's safe for Neopets?"

"It's under control here, I assure you. After all, we do have space ships."

_Then let's go._, said Carl.

With that, the three of us boarded the jeep and the driver then took off to wherever we needed to go.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15: Siege of Petpet Park

As the jeep drove through the woods, Genolu, Carl, and I waited paitiently. However, I couldn't help but ask where we were headed.

"Petpet Park.", the driver answered. "It's under siege."

"Why? What could Eithne want with Petpet Park?"

"Do you know the Petpet Protection League?"

"Meant to protect Petpets from abusive Neopets?"

"Other than that."

"They're also a secret agency that escorts new Petpets from Petaria, wherever that is, to Neopia, right?", I continued. "I participated in the plot, you know. The one called Operation: Petpet Park."

The driver suddenly raised his hat a bit. "You're one of the users-turned-Neopets, aren't you?"

"Uhh, yes?"

"Nice to meet you. I'm Samrin, the Petpet Herder."

"Nice to meet you, Samrin. How is it herding Petpets from the Balthazar?"

"It's rough work. I don't get to save everyone, and I, not being a fighter, get mauled numerous times over. Luckily, each time that happens, I'm somehow revitalized, ready for duty once more. It's like I have my own guradian Faerie."

Suddenlly, we stopped. The gate to Petpet Park was in sight, but it was closed and was being beseiged by the Giant Hungry Mutant Chomby, which whacked its tail many times on the gate. There were Heartless attacking the gates as well, although some merely went underneath like Shadows.

"Uh-oh.", Samrin gulped. "That's the only way in for vehicles."

_I can take you there_, Carl offered.

"How?"

_Everybody grab on to me._ As we complied, Carl then gripped tight on the jeep and concentrated. We suddenly disappeared in a poofy cloud, jeep and all. We emerged on the other side of the gate, where an Alien Aisha in a sort of space suit was bracing the gate. Aquanax was there as well, pummeling the passing Heartless with water magic.

"Wow!", she said to herself. "I forgot how awesome it was to use the spells we read in those books."

"Hey there, Aquanax.", Genaolu greeted.

The Acara turned around to meet us.

"Hey there, guys.", Aquanax greeted. "You should hurry underground. Mother Bruce is waiting."

_Isn't Bruce a dude's name?_, Carl asked.

"Bruce is her species. Her real name is Mrs. Weltrude. I'll take you there."

"Who's that barricading the door?", Genaolu asked.

"He's Eamann. He's known for eliminating Petpetpets from Petpets' fur by shrinking himself and eradicatiing them from there. Now let's hurry to Mrs. Weltrude."

* * *

Ten minutes later, we were at Mrs. Weltrude's Office. The four of us sat in chairs and faced opposite of the sincere Cloud Bruce who wore a busineswoman's suit and had her blue hair tied up into a bun.

"I'm so glad you came, nightelf_37. It's nice to meet one of the users who have supported my agents in finding those Petpets."

"Likewise, Mrs. Weltrude.", I replied curtly with a bow. "What is it that you require that needs me?"

"I'm sure that by now you know about the Neopets Agency, have you?"

"Of course.", Genaolu replied.

"Our Petpet Protection League is a semi-public branch of that agency. But let's get to the matter at hand."

Mrs. Weltrude then pushed a button on the desk and the room went bright.

_I expected the room to be darkened._, Carl remarked.

"With these 'Heartless' running around, I'd rather not risk an ambush from them.", the Cloud Bruce explained. "Anyway… You see, our field researchers have been studying on these…Heartless. These are the basic things we have found out."

As Mrs. Weltrude paused for a monent, diagrams of all sorts appeared around the room. These displayed technical analyses of some of the Heartless we encountered so far.

"First of all, we found out that Heartless are manifestations of the evil we have in us, however small it may be. And by evil, I mean intents to commit any sin or crime known to Neopet."

"…", I stood confused.

"In your words, it would be 'known to man'.", Mrs. Weltrude told me with a chuckle. "Moving on… Second is that the Heartless merely re-materialize elsewhere after they are destroyed. This applies regardless of whatever weapon or spell we try to use on them. Even the purest light of the purest Light Faerie only renders them unable to respawn for only a while."

"Isn't the last statement a little redundant, ma'am?", Aquanax asked.

"Sorry, child. Third, they can be directed only by people with strong and evil willpower. Undirected, they hunt down Hearts. Not the ones that pump blood through our bodies, but the ones we use to feel emotions."

"I don't understand how that is possible.", Genaolu interrupted. "Is there a logical explanation on how they do it?"

_The faeries here use magic._, Carl said to her._ You Neopets use magic. How do you explain __**that**__?_

The Xweetok was about to reply, but couldn't think of anything to say and decided to shut up.

"Sorry about all that, Mrs. Weltrude.", I said to the Mother Bruce. "Please continue."

"*sigh* Fourth, we found out that their main…directive, so to speak, is to locate the Heart of this world and consume it, engulfing Neopia in darkness so completely not even the darkest Dark Faerie can survive it."

Everybody gasped in shock upon hearing this.

"That's…cruel.", Aquanax managed to say.

"But so long as they don't find it, Neopia's still safe, right?", Genaolu asked.

"I'm afraid they have found out where the Heart is.", Mrs Weltrude sighed.

"Then why are they attacking Petpet Park?", I asked.

_Don't you get it? It's because the Door that leads to Neopia's Heart resides somewhere here._, Carl answered.

"I was about to say that.", the Bruce said. "Our research team has located the Door somewhere in our base. It also happens to have a keyhole in it, but we are unable to lock it."

_How do they know it's still open?_, Carl asked.

"They opened it and saw a void beyond it. In the middle of it was a large, pink, shining heart-shaped object. Our best option for the moment is to guard the door until the Keyblade can be found."

"The Keyblade?", Genaolu asked. I knew about this, being from the 'real world', but for some reason, and because I didn't know much, I didn't explain.

"The Keyblade is a weapon that is not only what we need to lock the Door, but can, other than open or close **any** lock, eliminate the Heartless indefinitely."

"Great!", Aquanax said. "How is it obtained?"

"It cannot be used by just anybody, however. You see, the Keyblade is a special weapon that chooses its wielder."

_I've heard of weapons like that._, Carl thought.

"This person who is chosen by the Keyblade becomes a 'Keybearer'; who becomes an exceptionally powerful warrior. This person does not reside in this world, but travels across the stars. This warrior is also known for possessing great power and skill, as well as magical potential that can rival that of the Faeries themselves."

"So this Keybearer must be found to save Neopia?", Genaolu concluded.

"Yes. But because we don't have the means of finding the Keybearer, we'll have to do that later. Right now, the Heartless have to be repelled until we can put up a good defense for the Door and hope it holds out long enough for us to then find the Keybearer."

The room then dimmed and the screens disappeared as the room returned to normal.

_You can leave the Keybearer-finding to me._, offered Carl. _But I'll do that after we take down Eithne._

"Thank you." Mrs. Weltrude then pushed a button on a pager and said, "Agents 27, 5, and 31. Please report to the office."

* * *

After some more briefing, we headed to where the Door to Neopia's Heart is, escorted by the three agents Mrs. Weltrude called for. These three were the same ones I (and other users) helped deliver Petpets to Petpet Park when Yurius interfered with their operations. They were (all anthropomorphic) a Green Nimmo, who had a bag full of gadgets, a Red Grarrl, who had quite a large build, and a Yellow Gelert, who had a slim figure and brown hair that reached her back. Their names were Mick, Deckar, and Kaylee.

"It's an honor to meet one of the users who helped us during those missions.", Mick said as the seven of us walked down a hallway.

"Please…don't mention it.", I sheepishly replied to the Nimmo. I did the latter half of the 'plot' only with the help of some users who have accomplished it already. They wouldn't understand if I tried to explain.

"Okay…we just need to take a turn here.", Kaylee muttered as she turned a corner. At that second, a blast of darkness came flying right at her. Deckar saw this and pulled his teammate back by the collar just in time.

"Watch it!", the Grarrl scolded as the blast made its mark on the wall.

_Someone's there._, Carl said.

"No need to tell us.", said Mick as he activated a gadget on his bag to scan the area.

"I've identified the intruders.", Kaylee said as she looked at a PDA-like device. "It's Purrow and Meesha."

"Who?", I asked.

"They're two members of a gang of Shadow Aishas who are nototirous thieves in Neopia.", Deckar explained. "While the Neopian public know only of the multiple rumors, the Neopets Agency know the truth about them."

"What is the truth?", Genaolu asked.

"There are exactly 20 members, the leader being Purrow, and Meesha being his second-in-command.", Kaylee said. "Snce Eithne's attack we managed to contain most of the renegades, although a pair other than these two here remain elusive as they just stuck to thievery."

"Why haven't you—"

"Arrested them immediately after knowing everything about them?", the Gelert said for her. "We're secret agents, not elite police officers."

"It looks like they know we're here.", a voice called.

"Duh, that blast of darkness isn't exactly invisible."

"All right. Let's confront them."

Suddenly, from the corner emerged two Aishas completely concealed in black clothing.

"Surrender the Blue Kacheek, now!", the two Aishas demanded.

"Demand denied!", Kaylee spat back as took out a pair of tonfas. Deckar brought out a pair of strange-looking gauntlets and put them on. Mick put away his gear and pulled out what he called an Electro-Mag Rod, which looked like a nightstick with the part that isn't the handle charged with electricity.

"Oh well, let's do this the hard way!", said one of the Aishas. We had no idea to tell which is which, or if they even have any distinct differences, other than Purrow's arrogance.

The two then pulled out a pair of knives each, and then they both charged, but not before summoning a horde of Bandit and Pirate Heartless. Both sides then charged. To add to the chaos, one of them used a smoke ball, clouding the hallway. Some of us, namely Genaolu and Aquanax, tried to go through it and bypass the enemy, but they were caught up in the fight when they had to defend themelves from Pirate swords.

As the Xweetok clashed with her sword, Aquanax pulled out a bottle of Magical Battle Paste and used it on her opponent, sending out a whip of sticky substance which whacked the Heartless and sent it to a group of them that cornered Kaylee. The Gelert agent then located Meesha and whacked her silly. Meanwhile, Deckar was pounding the oncoming Heartless that came out of the smoke cloud while Mick zapped down whoever bypassed the Grarrl. As for Carl and I, we successfully went through the enemies, emerged from the other end, and then fired from there.

Suddenly, Purrow came out of the smoke cloud to our direction and attempted to stab me, but I blocked that blow, switched to Electric Mode, and punched the Aisha with an electrified fist. Carl followed with a series of blasts, knocking him down. Back in the dust cloud, Aquanax and Genaolu managed to eliminate the Heartless and the Petpet Park agents managed to detain Meesha. At the same time, Carl and I defeated Purrow and took him down. The Petpet agents then cuffed the two and they were sent away.

"Well, that takes care of that.", Mick said as he and the other agents put their weapons away.

_Somehow, I feel like that same phrase has been said four times now since I got here._, said Carl.

We made it to where the Keyhole was and saw that there were, in addition to patrolling Jelly Chia soldiers, there were laser turrets manned by Light Faeries wearing white skintight unforms and work goggles instead of their usual yellow dresses. There was also a Blue Nimmo wearing the Team Meridell Yooyuball uniform and there was a longsword in its hilt that was tied to his belt.

"Who's he?", Genaolu asked, indicating the Nimmo.

"Oh, this is Zachary Fairweather, an agent-in-training.", Kaylee explained.

"Hi.", Zachary greeted. "It's an honor to meet a user in person. Even though you're not in your true form. By the way, unlike the other agents who are currently MIA, I don't play Yooyuball and thus I don't appear in the Altador Cups."

_Is this the Door?_, asked Carl, unrelated to what Zachary said.

"Yes. As we don't know how to close the Door, we posted guards instead as, for some reason, we knew the Heart inside was vital to Neopia's survival."

"Whoa.", I said, seeing the Light Faeries operating the turrets. "I didn't know Faeries were also part of this agency."

"Well, this agency is not exclusive to Neopets, you know."

Just then, we all felt a rumble from above.

"Oh, no!" Zachary gasped. "The GHMC has entered the park!"

"Who?", Genaolu asked.

"Giant Hungry Mutant Chomby."

"It's Giant Hungry _Malevolent_ Chomby, Zach.", a Light Faerie corrected.

"Let's go!", declared Mick.

"Good luck!", Zachary saluted. "Please hold the fort for us all. And all of Neopia!"

"You got it!", Aquanax assured.

* * *

A while later, we made it to the outdoors, where there was chaos all over the place. Everywhere we turned, there were Heartless fighting Neopets. Soon, we were caught in the conflict and we were separated from the Petpet Park Agents. However, we did run into Eamann and Samrin, who were dealing with the GHMC, who was getting tired.

"We could use a hand here.", Samrin said as he used a standard issue tonfa against the Chomby. "It might recover soon!"

Said Chomby had a helmet of rock with two tiny torches outside of it and a symbol between them (Fire Rock Helmet), wielded a red serrated blade (Million Degree Sword), the hilt held around by its tail, and wore a pair of stone boots of some kind (Fire Walking Boots) on its hind legs.

The GHMC drew a breath, and then spewed out flames from its mouth, forcing us to jump out of the way. Aquanax subsequently created a torrent of water from her forelegs and sent them right at the GHMC, who resisted the attack with its helmet. It then dismissed its weapon by unknown means and 'summoned' a pea with a little Santa hat on it.

(A/N: How are Neopets able to 'logically' bring with them up to eight battle items {weapons, potions, etc.} and potentially use them all in one battle?)

"Oh, #?&!", I gulped.

"Huh?", Genaolu asked. "What's wrong with a simple pea?"

Her question was answered when the Seasonal Attack Pea was thrown at her, and it sent her cascading through a number of obstacles, luckily none as hard as concrete, and she finally stopped at the park wall, slow enough not to kill her, but fast enough to exert so much pain that she fainted.

"That's why.", I finished to myself as I assumed Electric Mode and 'equipped' the Oaken Gear. I then dodged a fireball attack from a Red Nocturne, which was swiftly dealt with by Eamann's newly-modified Petpet Goo Blaster. Aquanax prepared a wave (Acara Tsunami) and launched it, powerful enough to defeat the GHMC, which was severely weakened by this point.

However, at the last second, a talisman (Thyoras Tear) appeared on the GHMC's neck and conjured a barrier that nullified all the damage. Then, darkness began to emanate from the Chomby, as if it were what I would call a "desperation attack". To make matters worse, a Jade Scorchstone followed, and the GHMC recovered from all the damage it took, ready for another round.

"Dung!", cussed Samrin. "I'm afraid I have to back out of this battle." As the Kacheek was about to retreat, the GHMC 'summoned' the Sword of Skardsen and created an attack wave of darkness that hit him and knocked him out. Heartless then approached him to turn him into one of them when Carl teleported in, teleported out with him, and then teleported back without him.

_I brought him indoors where it's safe._, Carl said as he quickly proceeded to attack the GHMC, which continued to use its sword and pea. We managed to dodge (barely for me) each attack, but they eventually hit Eamann, Genaolu (who was just recovering), me, and even Carl, taking us down for the count. Around us, the Heartless threat was receding thanks to the Jelly Chia soldier backup that was presumably requested.

I now lay next to a building wall, resting up as I watched Aquanax in her Gold Light Armor (back at Kiko Lake) and Faerie Wings and she was trying not to get hit. As she dodged yet another attack from the Seasonal Attack Pea, she was then hit by a stray Blizzard from a Blue Rhapsody, and was subsequently attacked by the GHMC's Sword of Skardsen. The Acara was sent rolling on the ground close to where I lay.

"Are you all right?", I asked Aquanax.

"Yeah.", she said as she gripped her talisman, which began to glow. She then invoked, "By The Integrety Of Sargas, Blue Knight Form!"

Instantly, blue streamers surrounded her Light Gold Armor and transformed them. The helm became a hood (still covering her whole head, leaving eye holes), the shield changed appearance into one resembling an Acara's face, the boots and horn guards were replaced by a shimmering breastplate, a twin-blade sword appeared on her other paw, and a medallion with an amethyst came out of nowhere around her neck. There was also a blue bow on her back, and a potion with the same motif on her person.

The GHMC was not impressed and merely roared as it gripped its sword tight and swung it right down on the Acara. Aquanax dodged the attack, put away her blade and shield, took out her bow, and fired an arrow at the Chomby's tail, relieving it of the sword. Before the Chomby could retrieve it, it was blasted further away by a beam from Aquanax's medallion, and Aquanax herself then fired another arrow at the Chomby's head. She then rushed at it with her blade and brought it down on the Chomby. She continued slashing and when her blade was 'shot' away by the GHMC's Sesonal Attack Pea, she then used her Potion and blinded the Chomby with its liquid. She then followed up with acouple of hits on the head and it finally submitted.

"Cuffs, please.", Aquanax requested to nobody in particular as the Heartless began to retreat.

"Right here.", Eamann said, getting up groggily as the area was cleared. As Genaolu, Carl, Samrin, and the Petpet Park agents came over, the Aisha handed the Acara a quite large pair of cuffs, who put them on the GHMC's forelegs. The Chomby then disappeared.

"Just where are they sent to, anyway?", I wondered as I reverted to my 'normal' form.

"To a special prison somewhere in Kreludor.", Samrin answered. "We'll release them after this conflict is over however, so as to maintain the status quo of Neopia."

Suddenly, a white portal opened close to us and my talisman rang once more. Celandra's face appeared on it.

"We found the way into The Neopets Team building, but it's being defended. Cross the portal that's just opened."

"Got it!", I affirmed. I then turned to Genaolu and Carl and they knew what to do. Just as the three of us were about to cross it, Celandra said, "Take Aquanax with you."

"Why?", Genaolu asked.

"She is needed as well."

The three turned to the Acara, who had already reverted to normal.

"Don't worry. We'll clean this up.", Samrin assured her.

"Okay."

With that, Aquanax, myself, Genaolu, and Carl crossed the white portal.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16: Last Skirmish

The four of us emerged from the portal and we found ourselves at the Tiki Tack Man's shop. Or was it the Tombola stall? I can't remember. In any case, other than the Tiki Tack Man, there were a few familiar faces. There were my other Neopets, Euryflavia, Messerole, and Tychophon. As they hugged each other in happy reunion, I saw Genaolu run into her father's arms.

"Kawas is here too, I see.", I thought as I turned to three others. "But who are these? Oh wait. I could swear I've seen one of them before."

I was interrupted by Kawas, who introduced the three to me. He first gestured to a Yellow Meerca with red gloves, boots, and cowl, and a wrestling belt with an N on it.

"This guy here is the Meerca Menace, a very formidable wrestler whose diet includes a daily Power Negg and has a very strong tail." As Meerca Menace took a wooden statue of the Tiki Tack Man and lifted it and himself up with his tail, Kawas then gestured to an anthropomorphic Green Quiggle with a red ascot, white shirt, metallic shoulder plates, brown pants, and hiking boots. "The Quiggle here is Quaglor the Intrepid. He explores the Faerie Caves under the service of Fyora." As Quaglor waved, the blue Xweetok then turned my attention to a Yellow Lupe with a key in a pendant around his neck. "And this is Garon. He explored the Faerie Caves before Quaglor."

_Great. Now we have six yellow Neopets together._, Carl remarked. _Anyway, might I ask why are we here?_

"You see, about the way into The Neopets Team building, it's in Geraptiku's Tomb.", Garon explained.

"Where in the tomb?", I asked.

"Do you know the treasure rooms?", asked the Meerca Menace.

"Of course, but I can't remember exactly where."

"It's in one of those rooms."

"Oh."

"All right. Here's the plan.", Quaglor said as we all huddled.

NWFNWFNWFNWFNWF

We were split into three teams that would be making their way to Geraptiku's Tomb. The first team consisted of the Meerca Menace, Carl, and me. The second were Genaolu, Kawas, Quaglor, and Garon, who followed a distance. Covering the rear were my four Neopets; Aquanax, Euryflavia, Messerole, and Tychophon. This team carried the Key, which was now assembled. One side of its loop was black and the other was white. The teeth were now a white square with a black star in it. The 'cylinder part' inbetween was black and white like the loop.

"Are you certain the teams are…correct?", I asked as we made our way up. The villages of Mystery Island that could be found were being defended by Jelly Chia soldiers of the Neopets Agency. As for the rest of the tribes scattered all over the island, until they were found, they had to fend for themselves.

"Don't worry about it.", the Meerca Menace said. "They can take care of themselves."

"Are you saying you already know them better than I do?"

"I didn't mean that."

"What did you mean, then?"

_Let's just continue walking, okay?_, Carl cut in.

"Okay."

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Further behind, the Yellow Travelers watched our backs as we all made our way to Geraptiku.

"Are we there yet?", asked Aquanax boredly.

"No.", Tychophon replied boredly.

"I miss being able to teleport around when Rael was still our user."

"He's still our 'user'. He's just a Neopet stuck in Neopia, that's all."

Just then, black fungus-like Heartless and Powerwilds surrounded them.

"Piece of cake…right?", Messerole asked in an unsure tone. At some point, they already encountered the Powerwilds, but not the Black Fungus. These Heartless then released poisonous fumes which paralyzed the four Neopets before they could do anything. However, the Heartless didn't attack them to make them one of them. Instead, one of the Black Fungus approached them, took the Key, and they all made a run for it, trying to exiting through a Dark Corridor, but they somehow couldn't. The reason why was because of a lockdown system the Neopets Agency set up around Mystery Island, which blocked anything dark from getting out.

Realizing this, the Black Fungus decided to run, the Powerwilds joining them. After a while, the Neopets recovered from the poison and decided to give chase. They needed the Key, and no one must stop them.

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Garon, Quaglor, Genaolu, and Kawas were making their way up when they saw Black Fungi coming their way, backed up by Powerwilds. As they came into range, Kawas shot them all down with his Tommy gun. About the same time, some more Powerwilds appeared, but Quaglor brought out a small bomb and hurled it at them. The bomb exploded in a violent flash of light and eradicated the Heartless. Once that was over, they saw the Key.

"What was the Key doing with them?", Kawas asked.

"They probably stole it from the Yellow Travelers.", his daughter guessed.

"Well, let's take it for safekeeping.", Garon said as he picked up the Key and put the string it's hanging on around his neck, joining it with the key he usually wears.

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Meanwhile…

At the 'frontlines', we encountered Tekkitu the Witch Doctor, accompanied by Wizard Heartless, Red Nocturnes, Blue Rhapsodies, Yellow Operas, and Green Requiems.

_Okay. What's his reason for being here?_, Carl asked himself.

"I thought you knew everything.", I said.

_Knowledge and intel are different things, at least to me._

"Oh, I get it."

Tekkitu said nothing as he ordered the Heartless in his command to attack, which started by firing loads of magic on us. The Meerca Menace bounced over them with his tail and landed on one of the Wizards. He then punched it into submission as Tekkitu used a Dark Scroll and shot a black wave from it.

While Carl dodged the attack, I shielded myself from it, and then fired away. One of the Blue Rhpsodies approached from behind and shot an ice bolt right at me. I turned around and barely managed to dodge it as it lodged itself into the ground where I was a second ago. I then tossed one of the few K-Bombs I had left at the Heartless and it was destroyed.

However, I didn't see Tekkitu come straight for me and whacked me with his staff, sending me straight for a tree.

"I got you now!", said the Techo as I saw Carl currently taking care of the Wizards while Meerca Menace was attacking the rest and helping out the chimera. "Conscious or not, you're coming with me."

"I could swear I've heard something like that elsewhere.", I said to myself.

"Shut your mouth!"

Just then, a Green Requiem was sent flying right at Tekkitu's back. The Witch Doctor saw it coming and turned around to whack it back at M.M. (Meerca Menace) with his staff. The second he let me go, I slumped to the ground and kicked up some dust, some of which got into my nose. As Tekkitu turned back to face me, I couldn't hold it in and let out a powerful sneeze, sending the witch doctor flying right into a Wizard. Tekkitu quickly jumped off it and swung his Evil Snowball Wand, launching… well, Evil Snowballs. We all dodged the attacks as these also hit the Heartless.

Carl saw this opportunity to 'blink' right at him and shoot a flurry of bullets at the doctor, sending him crashing to the ground. As the smoke cleared, however, it turned out that Tekkitu had used a Purple Scorchstone to heal himself. Double however, I used this time to switch to Electric Mode, then to my Oaken Gear. Triple however, Tekkitu hurled his bag of voodoo magic straight for me. Before I could bring up my shield to protect myself, I took the blow full force and was knocked over. As I got up from the blow, I saw Tekkitu adjust his skull mask and say this.

"Time for me to get dangerous."

"Uh-oh.", I managed to say before Tekkitu rushed for me and kept whacking at me with his staff. M.M. dashed to my assistance but the witch doctor was able to fend him off with little difficulty. He then jumped off me, then M.M., and then grew forty times his size with Supersize Gargantuplex. Okay, not forty, but still very big.

While most Battledome veterans would know this 'skill' absolutely sucks, I wasn't a Battledome veteran and this wasn't the Battledome. In the Battledome, as Carl tells me, limits are posed in such a way that many of the potentially awesome skills/weapons are 'nerfed', not that some of the weapons are good ones in the first place.

Tekkitu summoned his Ancient Manchu Bow, aimed it to the sky and, ignoring M.M.'s futile attempts to get his attention, fired. Seconds later, it was raining magical arrows, which tore through the trees (thankfully not burning them), and made craters on impact, the resulting debris doing serious damage on us and the Heartless. The witch doctor also had fun with his large size by trying to stomp on us and stuff like that.

I used the Oaken Kacheek Sword to try and hack at Tekkitu's feet. M.M. bounced around and kept whacking the witch doctor's shins with his powerful tail. Carl 'blinked' around the now giant Techo and blasted away with his guns. But all of these attacks were in vain as Tekkitu didn't so much as flinch. By this point, he was on his own. Not that he needed any more help from the Heartless.

As we dodged and attacked the giant witch doctor, one of said doctor's attacks (a swing from his also-now-giant staff) made its mark on me and I was seriously bruised by this point. I wasn't able to move a muscle without feeling excruciating pain. Just then, my talisman started to glow. I suddenly knew what to say.

"By the Tomes of Argentum! Grant me your armor!"

All around me, my current armor started to glow. And so did my weapons, which merged into one, then split into two. As soon as they stopped glowing, I was now wearing Silver Kacheek Armor, Kacheek Chrome Helmet, and on both of my hands were the Kacheek Fire and Ice Cannons.

As Carl continued to pester the witch doctor, I aimed my cannons (more like revolvers) right for Tekkitu's head and fired like there was no tomorrow. Blasts of fire and ice hit his face and earned my attention. As he raised his tail instinctively, M.M. got on and as Tekkitu's tail was raised high enough, the moment it stopped, M.M. let go and was launched right onto the Techo's head. Just as Carl blinked right above there, M.M. gathered power into his tail and swung it full force on Tekkitu. The impact was not enough to incapacitate him, but it was enough for him to lose his balance and fall to the ground with a loud crash. I managed to get away in time and seconds after the crash, I had the crazy notion to plug my cannons right into the Techo's nostrils. Or at least the holes in his mask that opened to them.

I fired a few shots from each of the cannons and they did him in, knocking him unconscious. As he subsequently shrunk, M.M., who landed safely on a tree and his tail, jumped to the witch doctor's back, and 'cuffed' him.

"Well, that takes care of that.", M.M. said.

_Here goes that line again._, groaned Carl.

"Let's keep going.", I sighed as I reverted to 'normal'. "The sooner, the better."

_Another cliché._

"Just stop it, Carl."

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About an hour later, we were inside Geraptiku's Tomb. Inside, we evaded all kinds of traps, the arrow one most common. And all the while, I wondered how they kept working all these years if it was abandoned. As he planted a trail fo glow sticks, Carl told me that the TNT maintains this via…means he doesn't want to confide to me. When I wondered why the tomb wasn't pitch-black before Carl put the glow sticks, the chimera refused to answer. I decided to stop asking as I wouldn't want to waste my breath, unlike Carl who couldn't speak verbally at all.

A little later, Genaolu, Kawas, Garon, and Quaglor made it to the tomb, and followed our path thanks to glow sticks Carl left behind jammed into cracks in the walls or the floor.

"Good thing Carl left a trail behind for us to go through.", Kawas stated as they went past the traps, which were already 'used' and won't be set to go off again. At least until the TNT building and the staff freed so they can do their job.

"How are you sure these are laid by Carl, dad?", his daughter asked.

"He was given these prior to the start of this 'expedition', remember?"

"Sorry. I forgot."

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Outside the tomb…

"Okay. We made it.", Euryflavia sighed in relief.

The Yellow Travelers had made it to the entrance of the tomb, where they saw the glow sticks Carl has left behind.

"There's Carl's trail!", Tychophon indicated.

"Thanks for pointing out the obvious.", Messerole replied sarcastically.

Suddenly, Aquanax decided to turn around and she saw a large, green spotted, red-haired Moehog with a purplish aura come their way. It was too late for her to warn the others however as the Moehog bowled them over really fast. By the time the four landed from the 'bowl over', the Moehog was already inside.

"Oww!", Messerole groaned as the four Yellow Neopets got up. "Was that…"

"Harry the Mutant Moehog?", Tychophon grumbled with a growl. "Yes."

"He seemed to have an aura of some kind on him.", Euryflavia stated.

"Darkness.", Messerole guessed.

"Let's go after him!", Aquanax suggested.

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Back inside the tomb…

Genaolu, Kawas, Garon, and Quaglor continued down Carl's glowstick trail when they were suddenly bowled over by Harry the Mutant Moehog. In the process, Garon's key fell off Garon's neck…and Harry stopped to catch it in his mouth.

"It's mine now, guys.", he said boredly as he put it on his neck and went on his way. "Please give up."

With that, Harry went on his way, leaving the four injured.

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Meanwhile…

Carl, M.M., amd I made it to one of the treaure rooms scattered in the tomb. This one had its treasure chest already collected, although Carl tells me that they get 'refilled' each time by the TNT by…reasons like how the traps keep working; Carl wouldn't say.

_All right. This is the place, right?_, Carl asked.

"Yes, it is.", M.M. replied.

"How do you know about this?", I asked.

"It comes with being a Black Ops agent. We were told by—"

"There you are, user.", a familiar voice said.

I remembered this voice. Despite not engaging my Neopets against him often, I remembered this Battledome challenger. It was Harry the Mutant Moehog. We turned around and saw that he had a key around his neck.

_Uh-oh._, Carl grumbled._ He has the Key. Prepare for battle._

As the chimera took out his guns, M.M. cracked his knuckles, and I shifted to Lightning Mode,

"Oh great.", Harry said as he dragged his hoof along the stone floor, ready to charge.

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"Oww. Who just ran over us?", Kawas asked as he, Genaolu, Garon, and Quaglor continued down Carl's glow stick trail.

"Harry the Mutant Moehog.", Quaglor answered. "He's an opponent in the Battledome. Who knows why Eithne 'recruited' him?"

"Who cares?", Garon replied. "We'll have to take him down regardless."

Just as the four reached the end of the 'trail', which led to a treasure room, they saw Harry the Mutant Moehog taking down M.M. I was already weakened and lay on a wall. Carl was in a similar position, but knocked out. Before he lost consciousness, he said, _Why is this happening to me. I could swear that Neopia is having some kind of "Worf effect" on me._

-Because of the hectic fight, I failed to 'remember' much of it.-

"Uh-oh!", Kawas gasped as he prepared his Tommy gun.

"Let's do it, Dad!", his daughter said as she drew her sword and shield.

"Looks like I got the wrong key.", Harry said as he realized that the key he took from Garon was the one belonging to the Lupe. "Please give me the Key."

"Just because you have manners doesn't mean we'll do as you say.", Garon said as he got ready to pounce. Quaglor said nothing as he curled his fists.

"Very well.", the Moehog replied boredly. "You asked for it." He then charged a ball of light from his mouth and then fired a beam from it (Ultra Rainbow Flash). Genaolu blocked the attack with her shield and from behind, her father fired away with his gun while the other two bypassed her to close the distance. Once they were close enough, Kawas switched to his knife and the four of them pummeled him with melee attacks.

"Grr…", Harry gumbled as he took in the attacks and countered whenever he could. Eventually, he was wearing out despite his dark aura. As one, his four opponents decided to finish it and they attacked as one. However, the Moehog shrank to half his size, and somehow reduced the damage he took (Downsize!). "Oh, great. It looks like I have to get dangerous."

"Yet another cliché.", I grumbled as I secretly quaffed my Kacheek Life Potion, which I have forgotten that I had until now.

Suddenly, as he returned to normal size, Harry pushed away his enemies with his Ram Helmet and Moehog Tail and started to contract himself, as if gathering power. A split second after, he unleashed a dark wave, sending his adversaries back and engulfing himself in more darkness than before. Worse, he seemed to have recovered from his injuries.

"Now you shall see the true power of darkness.", Harry said with the same bored tone, although it was warped.

"Uh-oh.", Kawas gulped.

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"Oh, I hope we aren't too late.", Euryflavia said as she and my other three Neopets followed the glow stick trail.

After a while, they made it to the treasure room, where they saw Harry covered in darkness. Kawas was doing his best to stay up, wielding his knife and desperately blocking Harry's attacks.

"It is inevitable.", Harry said as he pressed on the attack. The Yellow Travelers decided to change modes and into their 'first level' armor. For Tychophon his Blue Wing Armor, for Messerole his Full Armor, Euryflavia her Ornate Gear, and Aquanax her Gold Light Armor. By the time they were 'geared up', Harry has managed to take down the Xweetok, only to then be struck by a searing beam from Messerole's Antennae Ring.

"Oh, more?", Harry said. "I can take on four more, I guess."

"You're gonna regret those words.", Aquanax said as they all charged as one right for the Moehog. Harry countered by charging at them as well. Both sides collided and the four were forced back, but they got back at him almost immediately. Harry's Ram Helmet then met two swords, one pair of boots, and another beam from the Antenna Ring. Harry pushed them back with difficulty but was then met by two Noil fur-lined gloves, one of them holding a sword hilt.

"Take this!", Euryflavia said as she brought her blade down on Harry.

The Moehog merely hurled the Usul over his head, and then fired a beam of rainbow light (Ultra Rainbow Flash) at the rest, but Messerole opened a portal in front of it, redirecting the attack towards his butt. The Moehog turned to try and blast Tychophon, who dispersed into sand particles, armor and all, and reassembled right on top of Harry.

"Whoa!", the Shoyru gasped. "Forgot I could do that!"

"You forgot?", Aquanax replied with an incredulous tone as she took the others to safety. I helped her out, recovered enough to move around, but not enough to battle.

"Remembering you have powers rendering you effectively invincible is not as easy as you think!"

"I have to agree with him.", Euryflavia stated as she hopped on Harry with Tychophon as the Moehog went rampant, almost crushing their fallen allies numerous times as the two Neopets on him tried to strike him with their weapons, but failing. "It really isn't easy."

Finally, Harry decided to roll sideways in an attempt to crush the two on top of him, but they were rescued by Messerole, who opened a portal beneath them too small for Harry but big enough for his friends to get through. As they emerged seconds later by his side, Aquanax barraged Harry with a surge of water from her mouth (Acara Squirt), and then tackled him on the side. As the Moehog rolled over from the attack, the Acara jumped away as Euryflavia jumped in and slammed her fist into thr ground, creating a shockwave that went right for Harry, toppling him over.

"Why don't you do that earth serpent thing back at Meridell before we met Carl?", I asked, moving our 'fallen' allies to a safer location.

Euryflavia jumped back to allow Messerole a chance to dish out some more punishment.

"One, it's too crowded in here.", the Usul replied. "And two, it uses too much energy."

"I see."

"You're finished!", Messerole said as he opened a portal that shot out a blob of magma…and fired a beam of darkness from his Obedience Medallion. Neopets are more resistant to intense heat than regular humans like me (though I was a Kacheek at the moment), Scorchios being the most resistant, so the worst that happened to Harry was some burns and loss of his armor and consciousness.

"Finally!", I sighed as Tychophon took out a pair of magic cuffs and used them on Harry, sending him away. Right after, my Neopets used the skills they learnt from the Qasalan Healing Techniques scroll.

"That's all of them.", stated Garon, the Key still safe around his neck, although his old one was lost to the blob of magma Messerole brought out via portal earlier.

"How are you sure?", I asked as my Neopets reverted to normal.

"The Black Ops keep tabs. Now let's open the way into the Neopets Team building."

"How do you work it?"

"From what Number Six has told us, there is supposed to be a keyhole near the bottom section of this pedestal…" As he told me that, Garon was looking for it. "Ah…here it is. Somebody gimme a hand, will ya'?"

"Here."

He was offered something, and he turned around to…see a fake dismembered hand by M.M.

"Not funny, dude."

Quaglor pushed the Meerca aside and went over to Garon, who gave him the Key. Quaglor then inserted the Key into the keyhole and turned it. Seconds later, there was a slight rumble in the tomb. After a third of a minute, a white portal opened.

"This is it.", Quaglor said. "Isn't it?"

"It has to be.", Euryflavia replied. "Otherwise, all we did would be for nothing."

_It is._, Carl said. _I'm as sure of it as I am grateful when Mrfipp saved me from that evil Que._

"What?", Tychophon asked.

_Never mind._

"All right, then."

"Should we cross it now?", Messerole asked.

Before anybody could answer, his talisman 'rang'. He 'answered' it and Casandia's face appeared on it.

"I assume you have opened the portal, right?", she asked.

"Uhh…yes?"

"You, your Neopets, Genaolu, and Carl should cross it now. The rest of us will catch up shortly."

"What do you mean by 'catch up'?"

"We'll be opening a portal in front of that portal. The rest will stay behind to help on the portal."

"Okay.", I said as the 'transmission' ended. I turned to the others and I told them what Casandia told me.

My Neopets nodded and crossed the portal withut question. Before Tychophon followed his fellow Neopets, he did an informal salute at me before crossing.

"Aren't you coming, dad?", Genaolu asked her father.

"Don't worry about me. I'll catch up with you after this."

"Okay."

With that, as Kawas joined M.M., Garon, and Quaglor, Genaolu then crossed the portal. Finally, I crossed it as well, uncertain if I was ready for what awaited but knowing I had to do it to return home and to normal.


	17. Chapter 17

nightelf37: Happy birthay to me! I'm 19 years old now!

Chapter 17: The Neopets Team Building

As soon as me, my Neopets, Genaolu, and Carl crossed the 'gate', we stood in front of a large, fifty-storey, grey skyscraper with a logo on its front. It was white square with a black star in it. The Neopets Logo.

_I'm guessing this is The Neopets Team Building, right?_, Carl asked.

"I'm pretty sure it is."

"Should we go?", Genaolu asked.

"We're at the enemy's fortress.", Messerole told her. "We'll need to make absolutely sure we are ready."

_And from what I can see so far, we aren't._, Carl said.

"So we'll have to wait?", I asked.

"'Fraid so.", sighed Aquanax as we all sat down. Five long minutes later, portals opened all around us. From them emerged a lot of Neopets. Most of them were in uniforms of some kind. Others wore ordinary clothing. Many of them we recognized as Black Ops Agents we have encountered before.

Among them was Niten Hiroru, who was there when my Neopets were healed up and then given their talismans. NIghtsteed was there as well, looking real menacing. He then approached until he was to my left. On my right, I saw an anthropomorphic Red Lupe in a green uniform. I then recognized him as "Squeaky" Tressif, the only 'fair' player in Squad Brightvale; the rest of them play dirty when possible, at least once before.

"Are you ready?", he asked.

"For what?", I asked in return.

"To take down Eithne once and for all?", Squeaky answered for the Uni.

"As if I have a choice?", I then said, just like when I answered Fyora when she asked I was ready to fight, before I joined the Black Ops in repelling the Heartless.

"Then your team wait here while we head on ahead.", Nightsteed ordered. "Once the last of us are inside, you guys make your way to the top of the building. If Number Six's intel is correct, Eithne should be stationed at the penthouse."

"Use the elevator as little as possible.", Squeaky said. "They could easily cut the cord or swarm you there."

"Got it, Mr. Tressif.", Tychophon answered for me. "Just give us the word!"

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It took everybody five minutes to move in. Niten was in the lead with Nightsteed. A couple of Black Ops Agents followed. Next were either groups of Black Ops agents of 'regular' agents by teams. Of course, as I was told back at Darigan Citadel, Squad Meridell was missing, save for that newbie Zachary Fairweather we met at Petpet Park.

As soon as Team Skenkuu was inside, after thirty seconds, we (as in me, my four Neopets, Carl, and Genaolu) headed in. I had no idea why we headed in teams at a time, but in any case, once we were inside, it was total chaos. There was broken furniture everywhere, and there were Neopets battling not only Heartless, but also Evil Fuzzles, Chia Bombers, Chia Clown Robots, lesser Fire Ghouls, Baby Usuls (from The Usul Suspects), and even a few "Garoo Troopers".

In spite of all that, we proceeded up the stairs. As areas ot them were wrecked with battles or have combatants in them, we also had to pass through other floors, where there was battle going on. One Screwdiver headed for us, but was sucked away by a "hand vacuum" from Elon Hughlis, leader of Squad Maraqua.

"You're not getting away! You're all mine!", he said as his teammates (Barit, Filo, Dorina, Otem, and Tonie) dealt with the rest. Even though some of them were officially retired (from Yooyuball at least), they are still agents. After all, as they say, once an agent, always an agent.

"Even outside Yooyuball, Elon's a selfish jerk.", Aquanax said as we proceeded to the next stairs.

On the next floors we had to cross, we narrowly dodged a surge of light from Kakoni Worrill of Faerieland ("Sorry!", he said), were saved from a Wyvern by a tackle an slash from Valrigard's sword, were cleared a path of Shadows by XL Striker 3.8 of Virtupets, and spared the trouble of fighting a Fat Bandit by a Sticky Hand from Orie Dinelle of Brightvale.

At the 23rd floor, there was a Darkside, just like the one Hubrid Nox called out back at Darigan Citadel. And up against it were Kawas and Zachary. And things were not good for them. Zachary noticed us.

"Go on ahead! We'll hold this off!", he said as he swung his sword at the spawned Shadows.

One by one, we obeyed and made our way to the next stairs. Except for Genaolu, who decided to join him and her father.

"I can't leave you with this one, father!", she said as she prepared for battle. "Together, we'll beat it!"

"Thanks.", Kawas said as he, her daughter, and Zachary faced the Darkside. Knowing there's nothing more we can do, we proceeded without Genaolu.

In the next floors, we found some gagged Staff Members. There were Lawyerbot, Mr. Insane, El Picklesaur, Tiger Catcher, Mr. Roboto, and Bye-Gon Jinx, the latter of which then escorted the staff members down with his lightsaber. As Mr. Roboto waved us goodbye in his robot suit, we continued on. On the 31st floor, we saw Pop Tart running for her life, pursued by Defenders.

_From her disgruntled appearance, I assume she just recently escaped from where she was held._, Carl said.

He then quickly blinked to their behinds and shot them at the head, disintegrating them.

"Thanks you so much!", Pop Tart said as she came to hug the chimera, despite his appearance.

"Donna Powell?", Messerole gasped. "What are you and Adam (Number Six) still doing here? I thought you left Neopets, founded Meteor Games, and got hitched with each other?"

"That's our 'real-life' conterparts.", Pop Tart explained. "As for us, we still work here, keeping Neopets running, only we're now—."

"Never mind. Just get out of here!"

"Okay."

With that, after Carl gave her a parachute, Pop Tart made her way to the window, and jumped off.

"That's a weird way to go.", Euryflavia stated.

"And it's time for _us_ to go as well.", Aquanax said.

As we continued our run to the top, we met allies, both Black Ops and 'regular'. Eventually, after a couple of breaks as I wasn't athletic like my Neopets, we made it to the 50th floor, which was completely empty. However, there were traces of trash, which gave the idea it was once a regular office floor and was hurriedly emptied.

"Oh, man. I have a bad feeling about this.", I said.

"Let's just get to the stairs leading to the rooftop, okay?", Euryflavia told me with shivers up her spine.

We all silently agreed.

_Take these._, Carl said, giving us small blue bottles. _Drink them._

We did as he said, and we were suddenly like new, as if we didn't climb all those steps, ran all those floors, and fought all those baddies. After thanking Carl, we cautously walked across the floor as we reached the door eading to the staircase to the rooftop. In all of a sudden, Carl, who was covering our backs, was ambushed by about a hundred Heartless and wasn't able to be seen.

_I'll catch up!_, he 'yelled'. _Go on without me!_

We immediately did as the chimera said and crosed the door. As we climbed the steps and finally exited…only to suddenly confront Eithne face-to-face, shocking us all.

"Well, well, well.", she said. "It look like the little Kacheek and his four yellow pets have made it to the top."

"Before you fight us, I have a question.", Tychophon stated. "I thought you perished when you flew directly into the heart of Techo Mountain when you and Tura-Kepek tried to revive Moltenus. How did you survive?"

"I had that amulet I had with me when I flew into that volcano. It protected me from the volcano. I did not return immediately after so no one would think I was a problem anymore. Of course, there was still information about me, but I was no longer a worry. But enough of this. If you wish to find out more, you'll have to get through this."

Eithne snapped her fingers and a large dark portal appeared over our heads. And then something yellow crashed to the roof, somehow not breaking it. It then stood up and we saw that it was the Primary Grundo Bot RZ894 (from the Return of Dr. Sloth plot). We quickly changed into our 'second level' armor. Messerole's is the Purple Defense back at Darigan Citadel, Euryflavia's is the Purple Armor, Tychophon's is the Green Gear, Aquanax's is the Blue Knight Form, and mine is the Silver Armor I just used back at Mystery Island.

"Have fun, little ones.", Eithne waved as she disappeared across a portal as it closed.

The Grundo Bot raised its arms and prepared to smash us with its fists. My four Neopets jumped out of the way, while I ended up jumping right between its legs. I quickly drew my Kacheek Cannons and fired them at the Bot's groin. The Bot then raised its foot to crush me, but a portal appeared undreneath me and I fell in just before the foot landed. I then emerged next to Aquanax, who was about to jump right for the Bot. Suddenly, she did just that, and I saw another portal open above the Bot's head and Euryflavia emerged from it, coming down with her axe.

However, in all of a sudden, two swords appeared on the Grundo Bot's hands. It swung them at the two attackers and stopped them in their tracks. It was the Sword of Skardsen and the Sword of the Air Faerie. I was about to fire at the Bot's head, but then I saw the H4000 Helmet appear on his head. The Bot turned to look at me and before I knew it, I was frozen in place. The Bot then swung its torso in a high speed, throwing off Aquanax and Euryflavia, sending them off the building.

As its arms slowed down, Tychophon came seemingly out of nowhere and slashed at the Grundo Bot with his sabre. He then followed with a surge of flames (though not a fire breath) and then he backed off to dodge a swing from the Grundo Bot's swords. As he came over and thawed the (thankfully harmless) ice, a small portal opened behind the Bot's head and another surge of flames emerged from it, followed by Messerole, who was about to sear it ith his Antennae Ring, but the Bot then dismissed one of its swords, brought out a Pocket Cooking Pot out of its free hand, and chucked it at the Grundo, scalding and knocking him off. Just before landing on the ground, he opened two portals and my other two Neopets (the girls) emerged from it.

Aquanax and Euryflavia brandished their weapons and slashed at the Grundo Bot's legs, nearly toppling it over. Finally thawed, I shot at the Bot's hand, disarming it of its other sword and just before Tychophon could strike at its head with his sabre, the Bot smacked him away, pulled out a Jade Scorchstone from its central compartnent, and used it, negating all the damage we did to him. After that, it then pulled out a Ghostkerbomb from same compartment and tossed it on the ground to defeat us. However, at the last second, Messerole opened a portal to take the bomb in.

"Thanks.", I said.

"Don't mention it.", replied the Grundo.

"Either we did a lot more damage than we think, or the Grundo Bot's AI is a crapshoot.", commented Aquanax.

"Either way, we'll have to keep attacking and hope it's the former.", said Tychophon as he, Aquanax, and Euryflavia jumped right at the Grundo Bot, which brought out its two swords and somehow blocked all three of them.

Meanwhile, Messerole and I ran below, set our sights on the Bot's compartment. As we then fired right at the compartment where the Bot pulled out its Scorchstone and Ghostkerbomb, A Thyora's Tear necklace appeared around its neck and just as my other three Neopets got through and were about to strike, a veil of sorts formed around the Bot and repelled all our attacks. As we regrouped, the Grundo Bot closed its compartment, put its hands together, held its swords tight, and raised them to strike.

Suddenly, the Grundo Bot just fell 'limp', and all of its lights went off. It didn't lose its grip on its swords though. We approached the Bot and knocked on its shins. We then realized that the Primary Grundo Bot RZ894 was now either disabled or out of power.

"…That was anticlimactic.", Tychophon simply stated after waiting for half a minute. He then turned to me. "That's how you say it. Anticlimatic means 'against the weather'."

"Why did you correct him just now of all times?", Messerole interjected.

"Yeah.", I agreed.

"Hey! Look!", Aquanax said, pointing at the disabled Grundo Bot.

We turned to see the compartment open…and Carl step out if it with five orbs in his arms.

"Carl!", we all gasped.

_Missed me already?_, he asked. _I've faced tougher odds, although Que (1) was a nightmare. If it weren't for Mrfipp, I'd—_

"What are you talking about?", Euryflavia asked.

_Oh, sorry. _I then 'heard' him 'mutter', _Stupid OOC pill. (2) Why did I let myself take it before going to Neopia?_

"We can 'hear' you, you know.", Aquanax said. Apparently, they 'heard' him too.

_Oh, sorry again. I came to give you five orbs I found inside the Bot. Take your pick. It may help you on your que—oh, wait. Wrong story. Anyways…_

Carl gave the orbs to us. They were colored yellow, white, purple, blue, and green. We looked at each other, then I decided to step forward.

I took the yellow orb and I was covered by a warm veil of light. That light then faded after a few seconds.

Tychophon decided to take the white orb and he felt a slight breeze around him, which we felt as well.

Aquanax got the blue orb and she was then surrounded by a veil of water. After a few seconds, that veil dropped to the floor and she was drenched.

Messerole grabbed the purple orb and looked dim for three seconds. Then a veil of darkness manifested for another second before disappearing. I was worried about him as the darkness might corrupt him.

Euryflavia got the green orb and, according to her, she felt like there were leaves blown into her and the earth was rumbling, even though we were on a concrete rooftop.

"What were those?", I asked.

"If I were to judge by color and what just happened, I believe these are the 'essence' Eithne took from the Faeries and made them 'sick'.", guessed Messerole.

_I was thinking the same thing._, agreed Carl.

We turned to see what seemed to be the penthouse.

_Well, what are you waiting for? Go inside. Confront Eithne. Save Neopia._

"Won't you come with us?", Euryflavia asked.

_I believe this is something only Neopets should do. And besides, even if I wanted to accompany you… _Carl moved a hand towards the penthouse and was repelled by a force field. …_I couldn't. Now how is she savvy enough to expect non-Neopet adversaries?_

"But am I not—", I began to say.

_You're a 'user' in Neopets, and currently, you're a Neopet yourself. Now go._

Knowing there was nothing else we could do, we proceeded to the door, and opened it. Just before we entered, I turned to Carl.

"Carl, could you at least help out Genaolu? You know where she is, right?"

_Will do. Good luck._ And with that, Carl disappeared in a poofy cloud.

"Well, let's go.", I said, my voice shaking.

Slowly, the four of us entered the door. Once we closed it behind us, there was a light. We turned to see Eithne. We then observed our surroundings and saw that we were in the now empty Battledome.

"I see that Grundo Bot has failed.", Eithne said. "How do you like this place? I set up powerful magic just for what is to happen next."

"I believe we already know the answer.", Aquanax stated. "But before we begin, just how did you bring up the, as our owner calls them, Heartless?"

"Very well. I think I'l tell you. You see, after I escaped, I lay low, reading the Neopian Times, looking up evil plots that ended up failing, looked up their flaws. That's how I found out about Atera and her plans for world domination and her mistakes, not that my plan is perfect either. I also found out that the Guardians of Neopia Alkuna and Luvin have somehow violated the rules The Neopets Team imposed and were _unjustly_ banished from Neopia. With them out of the way, as they have defeated Atera once before and could be a threat to my plans, I started working on my new scheme. It was then that somebody came. He was slim, and had no distinguishable features, but was clearly…humanoid. He merely offered the Heartless for me to use and asked nothing in return. No catch. No conditions. Nothing. As I didn't have any 'minions' to do my bidding, I jumped at the chance."

"But how did you manage to round up all those 'small-time' villains and Hubrid Nox?", Euryflavia asked. "If I remember correctly, Nox isn't the type to make deals with other villains."

"And I'm sure he had plans to attempt an overthrow. I'll have to thank you and the Black Ops for disposing of him. And before you ask about the Wraiths and the Shadow Usul, the Guardians have confronted them and the Faeries have dealt with them. The reason why the Shadow Usul still seems to be around because it's a different one. Merely a rogue who uses his skills to steal. Now, I think we should get started, now shall we?"

As she summoned two flames on her hand, we realized we were surrounded by a few Fire Spectres.

"You seriously think I'd just monologue and monologue only?", she said as we changed to our 'alternate colors' and 'first level' armor.

"To be honest, yes.", I meekly uttered.

"Then you got another think coming." She and her minions then rushed us and we had the fight of our lives.

Aquanax took for the skies and shot out water blasts at the Fire Spectres (Acara Splash) as Eithne then summoned some Fat Bandits to assist. She pounded those with her boots, kicking them before jumping into the air again. However, she was then caught by a Wyvern called by the Fire Faerie.

Tychophon saw her predicament and flew in pursuit. Once reaching it, he swung his sword at the Heartless, getting its attention. As the Heartless let go of Aquanax, it charged for him as he prepared to swing again. He quickly made his mark and brought his sword down on the Wyvern's head, then dragged it across its back, destroying it.

Euryflavia swung her sword at the Fat Bandits, leaping over them to strike at the back. She took each of their punches as glancing blows on her Jelly body. She stayed wary of the Fire Spectres and used her shield to defend from their fire attacks. While the shield doesn't do any defense against that element, they still pushed away the flames so as she wouldn't melt or anything. She stomped on the ground and rocks shot from underneath the Spectres, dealing considerable damage.

Messerole was swinging his sword at the Neoshadow reinforcements, cutting them down and using his portals and dark powers to force the Heartless out of the ground. after cleaving a couple more of the Heartless, he turned his attention to Eithne, who was up against me. As I desperately evaded her light, earth, and air attacks, I swung my wand, shooting light at the Faerie. She then bound me to my shadow, but Messerole got me out and started shooting dark blasts. Eithne parried those with shields of light, then unleashed a torrent of water.

That water was 'caught' midflight by Aquanax, who then used that water on a Fire Spectre and destroyed it. She was then pounced by another Wyvern. She managed to get off, but it scratched at her wings. As she landed, just before she could revert to Yellow 'Mode' to turn into Faerie Mode again to restore' her wings, she was hit by a sphere of united elements. This was severe enough to somehow smash her armor. She was also reverted to Yellow 'Mode'.

"Oww…", the Acara muttered. Just before a Fire Spectre could burn her to unconsciousness, it was shoved by a strong gale from Tychophon.

"Oh no!", he gasped as he fought off some Fat Bandits. "Aquanax is down! Repeat! Aquanax is down!"

"Watch out!", Euryflavia said as she saw a Wyvern fly low to attack him.

She moved the ground below her and she started moving straight for the attacking Heartless. She reached her fellow Neopet in time to plow through and cut the attacking Heartless down with her sword. However, she was then attacked by Eithne, who hurled a sphere of united elements (I'll call it S.U.E. onwards) at her. The Usul blocked the attack but her shield was destroyed in the process. Another S.U.E. was sent at her sword, destroying it. Yet another S.U.E. was sent right at her and while she survived the blow, she lost the rest of her Ornate Gear and was back to Yellow.

Messerole was finishing the last of the Fire Spectres by enveloping them with darkness when a Neoshadow came up from the ground and grabbed his feet. As he ducked from a stray fire attack from Eithne that I deflected, he opened a portal underneath him, falling in with the Neoshadow. He quickly reopened it to get himself out of the Neoshadow's grip.

Unfortunately, because his portal opening wasn't oriented properly at that time, he ended up landing right in front of Eithne. He tried to swing his sword at her, but she gripped it by the sword, much to his surprise, charged an S.U.E.. She then slammed it through his sword, destroying it, and then smacking it right into him, smashing the rest of his gear, rendering him back to Yellow and knocking him away.

While I decided to move our 'fallen' allies to safety, Tychophon defeated the last of Eithne's reinforcements and started to head for the Fire Faerie herself. He blasted her with wind slashes using his sword and magic and then strafed around. Eithne stayed still and defended with Earth magic as the Shoyru kept attacking from a distance. Suddenly, she took notice of me moving everyone at a wall and decided to launch two spheres of darkness at me. I quickly brought out my shield and thought of defending. Just as the spheres reached me, there was a flash of light. I opened my eyes to see a barrier has formed around me.

"Light…", Eithne said as she then fired a sphere of united elements at me. As the barrier dissipated, I then remembered by lighning abilities in my current form, dropped my blaster, and shot a bolt out of my hands. Both attacks met and collided in one explosion. As I then stooped down to pick up my blaster, Eithne was headed straight for me. Before she could reach where I was, Tychophon smacked her from the side with his shield. Before he could swing his sword, Eithne caught it, created an S.U.E. again, swung it into his sword, destroying it, and then thrust it right at the Shoyru, destroying the rest of his equipment and retuning him to Yellow. Taking advantage of the time I was watching, she also fired another S.U.E. at me and it was too late for me to defend against it. I took the blow, lost my Oaken Gear, and returned to Blue form.

"Oww…", I managed to say as Tychophon hovered to where we stood.

"Surrender now.", Eithne said. "No Neopet can hope to defeat a Faerie."

"Excuse me?", Messerole managed to scoff. "How do you think Balthazar is able to _catch_ Faeries? And that hero in Neoquest was able to defeat 4 Faeries on his own during his adventures. And while they're on our side, Illusen has been taken down by Werelupes during that attack of The Darkest Faerie, and Taelia incapacitated by a Mynci thief."

"Well, you got a point there, little Neopet. It looks like my statement came out wrong. You cannot hope to defeat me. I still got the Heartless and even if I am defeated, they will continue attackig until this world is consumed in darkness."

"Why do you want to destroy Neopia?", Aquanax asked. "It's your home as much as it is ours."

"Revenge. After I defeat you, I'll burn all of Neopia to turn it into a paradise for all entities of fire. Of course, I expect there'd be resistance, and Kreludor and the Space Station would stay unharmed from this, but that's why I have the Heartless now. I wish to rule all of Neopia, or see it fall into oblivion should I fail."

"I feel like this statement is like something from a familiar violent game.", I muttered. _And one small part from it is where I derived Messerole's name from._

"Now, I shall take you down once and for all."

Eithne then charged for a massive attack but then there was a green light that engulfed me and my Neopets. The Fire Faerie continud to charge, but did not attack. As the light continued to shine, I heard a voice say, "Don't give up!"

When the light faded, the five of us were revitalized and in our 'alternate color' forms.

"Charge!", I cried out loud as I indeed charged. Charged up lightning, that is. Everyone else did the 'other charge'.

Euryflavia leapt up and made a sharp glare (Usul Glare) at Eithne, somehow inflicting damage at her. As she bypassed her, Aquanax followed up and slammed her forepaws at the Fire Faerie's head (Acara Dunk). At that moment, Messerole slid right below Eithne and blasted a sonic wave from his ears (Grundo Blast). As both then went past her, Tychophon plowed through her (Shoyru Dive), spinning her around in the process. Before she stopped spinning, I unleashed my lighning bolt at Eithne and brought her up, sending her cascading to an invisible ceiling.

Quickly, we changed into our 'second level' gear as Eithne recovered herself with a Jade Scorchstone. As she descended right for us, Euryflavia had the crazy notion of throwing her axe and that's what she did. As I predicted, the attack missed and the Usul had to run where it was dropped. As Eithne reached low altitude and continued flying, Aquanax used her Bow and fired an arrow. As this attack was fended off by a single fireball, Tychophon pointed his spear at Eithne and fired a beam of energy. The Fire Faerie blocked this attack with a barrier of darkness. However, as she realized she was too close to the Shoyru. He took this chance and slashed at her with his sabre. Aquanax followed up with a swing of her Twin Blade. Eithne then manifested a sword out of fire and both of them took to the skies.

Meanwhile, I put away by Fire Cannon and brought up my shield. I fired my Ice Cannon at Eithne, making sure I don't end up hitting Aqanax in the process. Erstwhile, Euryflavia managed to retrieve her axe and, as Eithne and Aquanax took to the skies, decided to ascend to their level with a pillar of earth. Messerole got the same idea and opened a portal leading to her current position and crossed it.

"Hey.", he greeted as he joined the Usul.

"Hey.", she greeted in return as both the winged combatants reached the two. As Eithne smacked the Acara to the ground with a blast of hot water and damaging her Faerie wings, a blast of darkness from the Obedience Medallion struck her down. As the pillar descended, Euryflavia leaped off it and right at Eithne and swung her axe at her. She landed a hit and both of them came crashing to the ground. Just before landing, the Usul got on the Fire Faerie, then jumped off her to break her fall. Just before Eithne could crash, she opened a dark portal and crossed it. She then emerged at the center of the 'Battledome'.

"Don't think I'm merely difficult.", Eithne said. All of a sudden, darkness engulfed her and when it dispersed, features of the other five elements were incorporated into her body. It was so horrible I dare not describe it.

Eithne then wreaked havoc by blasting elements all over the place, and the five of us dodged for dear life. After a minute of this havoc, five 'blazing phantoms' emerged from Eithne and headed straight for each of us. Seeing its speed, I instantly went for Eithne as I knew from the start that it will catch me. I fired my Cannons with everyhing I got just before I was struck by the phantom as it phased through me, burning me as it went. It stung, but I realized that was merely it. Seing that, I tried firing at the phantom, dodging Eithne's wrath as I went.

Fortunately, my Neopets were faring as well as I was and they knew how to defeat the phantoms. Euryflavia ran straight for Tychophon, and both of them had phantoms on their tails. As they reached each other, they quickly jumped to their right, and the phantoms slammed right into each other, destroying themselves.

"Didn't know that would work.", the Usul said.

"Neither did I."

After I saw that, I then turned to see 'my' phantom head straight for me. I then saw Aquanax in low-altitude flight, 'her' phantom right behind her. I quickly ran to her and just as 'our' phantoms reached us, the Acara grabbed me and veered to her left, 'our' phantoms canceling each other out.

"Wait.", I realized. "There were five phantoms summoned. How do we cancel out the last one?"

"Maybe that?", Aquanx said as she pointed at something behind me. As we then evaded a large water sphere from Eithne's havoc, we saw Messerole running with 'his' phantom after him. He then turned around, opened a portal, and the 'phantom' crossed it. Messerole then closed it to make sure it wouldn't return.

He then realized what else he can do with his portals in this scenario. He then opened a portal above Eithne and a torrent of seawater emerged from it, deluging her. However, the portal was then suddenly closed by a 'web' of light. As we gathered together, we saw the carnage has stopped and Eithne now hovering there, one hand open upwards.

"Playtime's over.", she said as she charged yet another S.U.E.

"Yet another cliché.", I complained as she blinked out of sight. She then appeared somewhere above where she was a second ago and the S.U.E. started to fire numerous beams. They wre too quick and we were pelted down by them. In seconds, we were worn down, back to our 'regular' selves. And just before we thought the attack was over, five more beams hit our talismans, destroying them. Then, chains of fire went straight for my Neopets and bound them in place. She then swooped down at me, grabbed me by the neck, and then slammed me into a wall.

"You and the Black Ops have proved to be too much trouble already.", she said. "You're not even worth keeping prisoner. So. I'm. Going. To. Kill. You." I gulped nervously, and it may well be my last. "Goodbye." She prepared another S.U.E. with her free hand but just before it could reach me, I felt my mind leave me.

NWFNWFNWFNWFNWF

The next thing I knew, I was on a platform semingly made out of satin glass. Around me were clouds in the same color as the ones in Faerieland.

"Where am I?", I asked.

Just then, two apparitions appeared in front of me. They were an Electric Eyrie and a Faerie Kougra.

"Wait. This can't be. This must be my imagination.", I said to myself. "This can't be Alkuna and Luvin, the Guardians of Neopia."

"We aren't.", said the Electric Eyrie. "We **are **figments of your imagination."

"Just great. I'm greeted by two Neopets who happen to represent the forms the Guardians of Neopia assume just before I end up in the afterlife."

"You can't give up now.", said the Faerie Kougra.

"Can't I? I'm not fit for battle, I've lost all my means of fighting, and my Neopets are now at Eithne's mercy. The only reason I did not just abandon everyone and run for my life is because I didn't have a choice."

The two Neopets just looked at me with utter silence. I almost thought I saw an orange circle somewhere in their bodies, but I shoved that thought at the back of my mind as the Eyrie spoke up.

"So you're gonna give up?", she asked.

"Might as well. I no longer have a reason to continue. And should I end up somewhere terrible…well, I don't have a choice in the matter, now do I?"

"…I think you deserve a second chance."

"Huh?"

"You may not care anymore about what happens to you, but there are those out there that can't have you surrendering."

"Why? Is the fate of the universe in my hands or something?"

"Yes.", the Kougra replied bluntly.

"Yeah, right. What can one ordinry human from the real world who wastes time at the computer do? Who also is fairly good at shooting games and other such stuff?"

"…I see. In any case, you'll be given a chance anyway. And you'll have a little help."

"Fine. Hopefully, this would make the cut."

NWFNWFNWFNWFNWF

Back at the 'Battledome', Eithne was seconds away from doing me in when all of a sudden, I was engulfed in pure energy. I was no longer in control of my own body. I fired a strong beam of light right at Eithne and sent her flying to the wall on the other side. She quickly recovered and headed straight for me. I charged as well and we were suddenly fighting-hand-to-hand, with the elements at our fists. It was so hectic my mind wasn't able to catch up. Eventually, Eithne was down to her regular Fire Faerie form and I landed next to my now-freed Neopets.

"I hate deus ex machinas.", I groaned as the aura around me dissipated. "But it sure was fun to kick a Faerie's butt."

"That little stunt you pulled won't stop me.", she said as she charged another S.U.E., only it was now a mere fireball. "Even with my new elements gone, I will. Not. Lose." She let loose a surge of flames from the fireball. The next thing I knew, I felt like I knew what to do next.

I put my hands together and a beam of radiant light shot from my hands. From them, I saw the orb I remembered taking from that fallen Grundo Bot.

"Thanks for the orbs inside the Grundo Bot!", I yelled without thinking about it. From hearing what I said, my Neopets seemed to know what to do.

Euryflavia then stood at my right and launched a bem of what I could only call nature power. Messerole stood to my left and let loose a beam of darkness. Aquanax was now at my left and sent out a huge torrent of water not like any of the Acara abilities. Tychophon came to my right and shot a raging gale of air from his hands. As we struggled in this beam-o-war, pushing back and forth, I thought I saw the two Neopets from my 'imagination' at the corner of my eye. And on the other side of my vision range, I thought I saw a black 'stick' figure.

I then turned my attention back to Eithne and concentrated further in my Light attack. My Neopets also focused on their respective elements. Eventually, out united beam won out and five elements, the very ones she stole from Siyana, Psellia, the Rainbow Fountain Faerie, Jhudora, and Illusen, slammed right into Eithne. This continued for a while, then it stopped.

The moment Eithne fell, the 'Battledome' around us changed. I also heard voices as I began to change as well as sparkles began to emanate from me. As I was then engulfed in streamers, I heard these.

_Looks like he's got what it takes after all._, I heard the Eyrie say.

_True. Why did we have to assume the Guardians' forms anyway?, _'said' the Kougra.

_Looks like Eithne has failed._, said the black being._ Such a shame. I think I'll get back to those Wutai Associates. Looks like Neopia isn't worth the trouble of taking over._

When the streamers went away, I was finally back as a human. However, something seemed to be different. I was no longer wearing the clothes I wore before I entered Neopia. I now wore a blue T-shirt with a yin-yang decal, denim jeans, blue sneakers, a pair of glasses (I wear glasses), blue sneakers, and black fingerless gloves.

I turned my attention back to the room and I realized we were now in a plain room. I assumed this was the penthouse's original form. as I wondered that, I saw a shining portal open and Fyora crossed it. Then, from a poofy cloud, Carl emerged, Genaolu and Kawas with him.

"Is she down?", Kawas asked.

"Yes.", I replied. Eithne has been defeated. As Kawas came over with those special cuffs, Genaolu came over to me and said, "I'm sorry I haven't been of much help. I'm sure things would've been the same even if I hadn't accompanied you."

"It's okay.", Tychophon stated. "You're quite skilled as a fighter."

"Thanks."

After Kawas cuffed Eithne, sending her with her minions she 'hired', Fyora came over to me.

"What's happening back at Neopia, Your Majesty?", I asked.

"While you and the Neopets Agency were in the Neopets Team Building, facing off against Eithne, the Heartless have retreated, but we'll be ready should they return. As for her prisoners, we found them in a pocket dimension. They have been freed, returned to their homes (in the time they were taken for owners), wiped of their memories of this event, and given 10% of their Neopoint total for their troubles."

"I see."

"For all you have done to help Black Ops and your successful victory against Eithne, I hereby dub you the Neopets Warden Force. (3) While not doing what you usually do as a user, you will accompany the Neopets Agency in their missions as the Yellow Travelers."

"What about me?", I asked. "I mean, my Neopet form isn't yellow."

"I'm afraid you're exempt from this privilege. From your behaviour, I can see this is not meant for you. I'm sorry."

"It's okay."

_I'm afraid you have yet one more task to accomplish._, Carl spoke up as he opened up a portal.

"What?", I was saying. "What about my return home?"

_Don't worry. After this, you will be returned to the exact time in which you left._

"Okay... What should I do?"

_Find Squad Meridell and bring them home!_

"And?"

_Cross that portal and find the Keyblade wielder. We'll need him to seal Neopia's Keyhole!_

"Wait! won't **you** be the one looking for him?"

_Sorry, but I have to get back to Mrfipp. _

"Oh, all right." I turned to Fyora and said, "Your Majesty, I may not be in the position to ask somene as powerful as you but…look after my Neopets while I am gone."

"It will be done."

"Okay.", I turned to my Neopets and said, "See ya."

Gathering what little courage I had, I crossed the portal—and suddenly I was falling backwards. I felt the wind pass my body. As I was about to hit an ocean below, I was hit by a tidal wave, not that I ever got hit by one before. Next thing I knew, I was in the sky again. It was dawn there. I continued falling, and before I knew it, I was in the water again. Still, I seemed to be breathing. I then flipped and landed on an invisible platform.

Before I knew it, doves flew from underneath my feet, revealing a green circular platform with a triangle with 3 circles in its edges colored red, blue, and yellow respectively. As I saw the doves fly off, I felt this was familiar somewhere. before I could figure it out, despite seeing those Heartless attacking Neopia, I felt a small sack drop on me and dispense itself of its contents. I ended up breathing the powder and I felt the memories fading away. Eventually, I forgot everything I'v been through.

-A/N: And thus the beginning of Kingdom Hearts Remake 1…begins.-

(1) Check Mrfipp's FanFiction page for more. Look for Que with a link and it will take you to Que's description (and picture).

(2) OOC pill: can alter (slightly or greatly) one's mannerisms and personality. Just in case I ended up writing him not in character with Mrfipp's. After all, he owns him.

(3) Yeah, the title drop came too late. Sorry.

-I'll be remaking the Neopets Warden Force AND Kingdm Hearts Remake I so I can fix things up. Sorry if the ending was bad. I was getting hasty so I ccan get to work on KHR3 already.-


End file.
